Ryanair – a reckless price cutter!

Hører til reise, transport og for foreigners

With Ryanair you can fly to London at the cost of a few Euros. But former employees with whom the Consumer Report has been in contact, maintain that Ryanair’s low price concept does not attend to safety in a proper manner.

Geir Røed og Henrik V. Ebne Testansvarlig tjenester og Informasjonsrådgiver/journalist, 04.02.2003 21:04 Også publisert i Forbruker-rapporten 02/2003

350 000 passengers went to and fro Norway with the low price company Ryanair last year. Former Ryanair employees maintain, however, that the cheap tickets come as a result of cynical business ethics and dirty tricks.

- The company makes the most of its employees, says former Ryanair pilot Petter Helland.

Also public authorities worry:

- Ryanair and other low price companies “cut bends” in order to save money, ascertains a report from the British Civil Aviation Company (CAA).

- Are being sacked

In the February edition of the Consumer Report (Forbruker-rapporten) we highlight the low price air companies, and in particular Ryanair. Ryanair is one of the most successful air companies. Ryanair has enormous profits, and is now considered to be the third most valuable air company in the world.

Ryanair expands, and offers more and more flights to more and more destinations. Merely from Norway Ryanair now flies to three destinations, and in April the fourth connection will be opened.

But why and how do they earn this money? Former Ryanair employees strongly criticise the conditions “behind the curtain”.

- The corporate management has an unofficial system in order to get rid of troublesome employees. If you get ill, have too much fuel after landing, or do anything else “wrong”, you will get a mark. When you have got too many, they fire you, says Petter Helland. He was a Ryanair pilot for 6 months, up to last spring. Then he quit, and he will never set foot again in a Ryanair plane.

- I have seen and experienced too much. I advise everybody against flying with Ryanair, he says.

- Shortcuts

In Ryanair the ratio of efficiency shall be great. The ground stops are only 25 minutes. Moreover, in Ryanair it is the cabin crew that is in charge of the boarding, while the pilots check the plane’s technical condition. In other companies there is a specialized crew for this kind of work.

Ryanair-pilots sit in their cockpit for up to 11 hours without a break. You hardly have time to stretch your legs. Before you can say Jack Robinson, new passengers have taken their seats, tells the Norwegian pilot Tore Eikenes in Ryanair.

Ryanair is being criticised from many quarters.

- Flight control officers report about planes flying to fast, especially during take-down and in uncontrolled airspace, says deputy chairman of British Flight Control Officers Association, Mr. John Levesley to the Consumer Report.

The British Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is also full of criticism.

- Ryanair and other low price companies cut bends in order to save money, ascertains a report from the authority.

- Breaks the rules

The consumer authorities receive many complaints over Ryanair. Because Ryanair is an Irish company, passengers who want to file complaints against Ryanair, will have to address their complaint to Irish consumer authorities. Nine out of ten complaints which the Irish consumer authorities receive from the rest of Europe, are against Ryanair.

- The complaints are about delayed planes, cancelled flights, missing luggage and problems in connection with booking flights on the net, tells executive officer Susan Reilly.

- What is your advice to passengers with Ryanair?

- When something goes wrong, you yourself will have to seek up information about your rights. You do not receive any help from Ryanair, says Reilly.

On the instructions of the Consumer Report, legal officer Mr. Jon Andreas Lange of the Norwegian Consumer Council’s Legal Section has examined Ryanair’s travel terms. He concludes that several of the clauses break the international rules.

- Among other things, Ryanair denies all liability for passengers who miss their plane for further destinations because of delays. This is in defiance of the Warsaw convention, says Mr. Lange.

He also points out another clause of the terms, viz. that the departure time stipulated on the tickets or in the time table are not guaranteed..

- In reality this means that no time is agreed between Ryanair and the passengers, and that the planes are never delayed. This is unreasonable!

- Ryanair is not concrete

The Consumer Report has on several occasions, both over the telephone, via e-mail and by showing up personally in Ryanair’s head office in Dublin tried to get some comments from Ryanair’s corporate management.

But their publicity manager Mr. Paul Fitzsimmons turns down all accusations and says that on a general basis “Ryanair has revolutionized air travels for millions of people by cutting down the prices”...

Translated by Aslaug Helle