Scottish police called to calm and feed rioting Ryanair passengers

by Scott Carmichael on

Once again, Irish low cost carrier Ryanair is in the news with a story involving passenger mistreatment. Yesterday, police were called to assist in calming 168 passengers on a Ryanair plane at Prestwick airport in the UK. The plane was bound for Girona, Spain, but had been stuck on the ground for six hours.

With a wait of that length, the passengers were naturally becoming quite annoyed, but to make matters worse, the flight crew were not willing/able to serve any food or drinks. Because of EU tax laws, the bar carts on the plane are sealed until the plane is airborne, which meant passengers would have to sit the wait out without anything to drink.

Since Ryanair is a pay-for-everything airline, passengers are not allowed to bring their own food or drinks on board, and at the six hour mark, this proved to be too much, and some passengers began to riot. When local police arrived, they didn’t arrest anyone, and did the right thing – they went into the airport and purchased water and chocolate for the agitated passengers.

Ryanair apologized for the incident, blaming striking French air traffic controllers for the delay. Still, it may be a good idea to stock an unsealed bar tray on their planes, because keeping passengers locked on board a plane for six hours without anything to eat or drink takes customer service to new lows. Then again, Ryanair does seem to excel in finding those lows whenever they can.

[Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]

Ryanair to open base in Valencia, Spain

by Sean McLachlan on

Budget airline Ryanair has announced that it will open a base in Valencia, Spain, Inside Ireland reports. Service will start in November with a total of 260 flights a week to 20 destinations, including popular spots such as Madrid, Barcelona, London-Stansted, Dublin, Brussels, Frankfurt, Milan, and Rome.

Valencia is a port in eastern Spain that combines beautifully preserved medieval and Renaissance architecture with modern exhibitions and a fun nightlife. Gadling named it one of the 25 greatest cities for drinking wine.

Ryanair is celebrating by offering half a million seats from €10 ($12) for travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays on more than 500 routes this September and October. The seats are only available until midnight this Thursday.

Photo courtesy Felivet via Wikimedia commons.

Irish Minister’s fury over Ryanair $120 baggage fee

by Scott Carmichael on

Ryanair has yet again managed to make the news with their outrageous fees – though this time, they may have annoyed the wrong person.

For the busy summer season, Ryanair passengers will have to pay £5 more for their checked luggage – making the first checked bag £20 ($29) , and second bag £40 ($58). The real kicker comes when you are unable to check in online – which will double the checked bag fee to £40 for the first bag and £80 for the second.

With these numbers, a family of two (each with two bags) that finds themselves unable to do an online check in could be paying as much as $350 for the right to travel with their bags. And when you consider that seats on Ryanair sell for as little as $5, you’ll see why a bargain airline isn’t always the cheapest option.

Irish Finance Minister Sammy Wilson is so outraged, that he is urging passengers to take their business elsewhere. Mr. Wilson says Ryanair is treating passengers with “arrogance and disdain”.

Of course, the big winner in this new fee scheme is Ryanair- just this week, they announced a healthy profit from the past year, making them one of just a handful of profitable airlines in the world. So – if you plan to travel on Ryanair this summer season, be sure to verify that you can do online check in, and that you pack your stuff in one bag, otherwise you may burn through all your vacation cash in just a few flights.

(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

Ryanair announces profits despite tough year

by Sean McLachlan on

Budget carrier Ryanair announced 341 million euros ($419 million) in profits for the first quarter of this year, despite the economic downturn and a loss during this time last year.

These profits will be whittled away thanks to taxes, an estimated 50 million euro ($61.5 million) loss from the Icelandic volcano, and a 3 million euro ($3.75 million) fine the Italy slapped them with for stranding their passengers, but considering the state of the economy it’s still impressive.

In a further show of strength, Ryanair is going to pay a 500 million euro ($615 million) dividend to shareholders, the first time it has done so.

The airline credits a 14% rise in passengers and lower fuel costs as the main reasons for the profits.

Photo courtesy Abutcher15 via Wikimedia Commons.

Germany bans Ryanair from charging credit card fees

by Scott Carmichael on

Ryanair has been handed a nasty blow to its business model in Germany when their federal court banned the budget airline from charging credit card fees on flight reservations.

The case was brought against Ryanair by the German consumer protection agency who complained about the fee. Every ticket booked for Ryanair flights comes with an additional fee, varying between $2 and $5, and there is no way to avoid paying it.

Because Ryanair does not offer an alternative payment method, the courts dismissed the Ryanair argument that the bank processing fees are simply being passed on to consumers. In their verdict, the courts said the airline must provide an “established” payment method that does not require any extra effort or cost.

This verdict is just another blow to Ryanair in Europe – recently the airline was hit with a three million Euro fine for not aiding stranded passengers. In the end, if Ryanair does start including credit card fees in their ticket prices, it’ll most likely mean ticket prices will simply go up.

Ironically, the court verdict came at the same time Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary was in Germany to announce a major investment in Frankfurt for a new maintenance facility.