Ryanair to offer $15 flights over the Atlantic

by Grant Martin on

Everyone’s favorite low-cost carrier, Ryanair, just put a price on the transatlantic tickets that they’ll soon be offering: a whopping 8£.

“Eight quid,” you say, “how can they afford that?!?!” Well, the same way that they offer 1£ flights throughout Europe — by making you pay departure and airport taxes and by making you pay dearly for additional fees like bags, meals and drinks.

Don’t expect to get 8£ flights on weekends in the summer either, you can wager that high-season fares are going to be significantly more than the “off-season” prices. So in total you’ll be paying around $300 in fees plus the $15 ticket and whatever other fees you accrue on the trip. Still it’s not a bad deal, I guess.

As to whether the transatlantic product will ever even get off the ground (get it?) I’m still dubious. CEO Michael O’Leary’s proposition to charge extra for a first class cabin to recoup for losses from coach is purely hinged on his ability to sell seats up front. And from what I hear, most business travelers won’t touch Ryanair with a ten foot pole.

O’Leary plans to make his plans for the airline more clear in a press conference at some point today. In the best of cases, however, you won’t be flying on a RyanAtlantic flight until late 2009 or early 2010. Time to start saving!

The airlines celebrate halloween

by Grant Martin on

Oh, to be part of the airline industry. As we recently saw in great detail, Southwest Airlines takes the holiday very, very seriously. Out at their headquarters on Friday, I was privy to a celebration of epic proportions — several departments decked out completely in costume and decoration, some with meticulous construction and weeks put into planning. I heard that some departments hired professional choreographers to coordinate their dance moves. More on that later this week though.Elsewhere in the industry, Virgin America also hosted a smaller celebration at their headquarters in California, complete with over-the-top costumes and decorations. I also heard that some Northwest employees dressed up as Delta employees. Wild.

In other news, the candy jar at my office has been empty for about a month now. I’ll cross my fingers on the Halloween celebrations getting kicked off next year.

Flight attendant ruled too fat to fly

by Meg Massie on

A 20-year legal battle between Philippine Airlines and flight steward Armanda Yrasuegi has finally ended with a Supreme Court ruling that grounds Yrasuegi for good. The airline dismissed Yrasuegi in 1989, because the 5’8 217-pound man had failed to lose weight, as required in his contract.

Yrasuegi cried discrimination, stating that his weight was a “sickness and physical abnormality” beyond his control, but this argument carried little weight when the flight attendant refused repeated offers of medical weight loss assistance. The Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling in favor of the airline, stating that Yrasuegi’s weight “indicates absence of willpower rather than an illness.”

The ruling went on to say that Yrasuegi’s weight would likely keep him from performing his job efficiently, especially in the case of an emergency. According to Gadling’s own flight attendant, Heather Poole, flight attendants must be able to fit through the exit door and buckle up in the jump seat, which may be difficult for a man nearly 60 pounds overweight.

The airline industry is one of the few where weight requirements aren’t discrimination, but rather simply necessary. We don’t know what Yrasuegi’s contract with Philippine Airlines specifically required in terms of weight, but it doesn’t seem that any airlines are asking their employees to have unrealistic Hollywood bodies. It also sounds like Philippine Airlines was willing to pay for its employee’s weight loss program — how many other companies would do that?

Who Else is Causing Trouble in the Skies?


JetBlue includes a little extra treat in their Halloween goodie bags

by Scott Carmichael on

Halloween may be over, but please don’t let that stop us from posting one more piece of airline related Halloween news.

Kids at a Halloween party sponsored by JetBlue received an unexpected surprise in their baskets when parents discovered bags of candy tied shut with an ad containing links to an adult toy party Internet site.

The parents were naturally livid, and JetBlue has fired the employee responsible for the ad, making this the second story about fired airline employees this weekend!

I’m a bit at a loss as to how this could happen, unless the employee in question thought this was an adults only shindig. Of course, even if the bags were originally intended for the adults, I’m not sure it’s the kind of product you want to be advertising at a Halloween party.

Social network jokes result in 13 Virgin Atlantic employees being fired

by Scott Carmichael on

13 Virgin Atlantic cabin crew members have found themselves in hot water (and without a job) after they posted inappropriate jokes about their employer on social networking site Facebook.

The jokes involved the crew members calling passengers “chavs” (the British equivalent of the US Redneck) and making jokes about faulty engines that had to be replaced 4 times a year. Other jokes claimed that Virgin Atlantic planes were full of cockroaches.

The Facebook group was setup by crew members based out of Gatwick airport. When Virgin Atlantic discovered the Facebook group, all 13 members were fired and the Facebook group was removed.

While the punishment may seem a little harsh, Virgin Atlantic is in a very competitive market, where jokes like this could cost a significant amount of money.

Virgin Atlantic has a more friendly (and official) Facebook page, with close to 7000 friends as well as links to their hottest deals and some video footage from a Virgin Atlantic cameo in the newest Bond movie.

Guess who else has been naughty in the air?