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November 9th saw the inaugural Holiday Extras Customers’ Awards 2009 take place at a stylish ceremony at The Hempel Hotel in London.
In inviting customers to offer their candid opinion, the Customers’ Awards provided a platform for the travelling public to be heard and the service provided by the travel industry recognised by those that matter most.
Nearly 18,000 votes were cast in categories including best airline, best cabin crew, best value for money and best airline for traveling with babies.
The above are all areas that Ryanair are typically crap at providing any sort of service in. So it came as no surprise to see that Ryanair, the world’s most hated airline, won absolutely nothing.
Well done to British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Aer Lingus on winning a range of awards.
Taxi for Ryanair please.
Read more at http://www.holidayextras.co.uk/customers-awards.html
EasyJet Plc founder Stelios Haji- Ioannou, who thwarted management plans to boost capacity, said rival Ryanair Holdings Plc is courting disaster if chief Michael O’Leary sticks with his growth strategy.
Dublin-based Ryanair needs to increase passenger numbers by 50 percent over the next 2 1/2 years to fill its 200 aircraft and another 100 on order, said Stelios.
“I am looking forward to seeing how this do-or-die mission of Ryanair and Michael O’Leary will end up,” Stelios said in an interview in London yesterday. “I believe that he will have a lot of grounded aircraft in the next few years.”
Stelios, 42, campaigned against a high-growth strategy at Luton, England-based EasyJet until the carrier said in July it would increase the number of seats by 7.5 percent a year compared with an average of 15 percent between 2005 and 2008.
EasyJet’s new growth plan is “a lot more sensible” and “much more profitable,” than Ryanair’s said Stelios, who with his family is the airline’s No. 1 investor with a 38 percent stake.
EasyJet spokesman Oliver Aust said the carrier has developed a more realistic business plan than Ryanair.
“We follow a different strategy and we feel ours is better,” he said. “We fly to major airports, which is where our passengers want to go.”
EasyJet shares have gained 30 percent this year, valuing the carrier at 1.55 billion pounds ($2.56 billion).
Ryanair is down 4 percent.
Ryanair, the World’s biggest bully, is to close all six of its routes to and from Basel, Switzerland’s third largest city, as a result of a dispute over the airport’s charges.
Basel airport had refused to be shafted by the demands Ryanair where making over airport fees. Good on them we say. In response, Ryanair have pulled all services from Basel. Good riddance!
Ryanair’s idiotic spokesman Stephen McNamara blabbed: “Ryanair continues to lower fares to encourage travel, but with passengers paying lower fares airports must lower their charges – particularly high cost airports like Basel, London (Stansted) and Dublin.
“Ryanair had offered new routes, traffic and growth to Basel Airport but since they prefer to preserve their high cost base than to grow, Ryanair will now close all its Basel routes resulting in the loss of 250,000 passengers p.a. and up to 250 jobs at Basel.
“Ryanair will continue to grow at low cost airports which work with us to deliver the low fares required to keep passengers flying during this recession. Ryanair apologises to passengers affected by these cancellations and will contact them in the coming weeks to provide them with a full refund.
Oh Stephen, you do sound like whingeing prat. Go away wont you. We don’t care.
We highly recommend passengers look to a range of alternative airlines that fly from Basel that offer free check-in, free baggage allowance and an allocated seat. Lovely.
Ryanair’s plan to increase the charge for printing boarding cards in the airport to €100 has proved a boon for an Irish internet company which is offering the same service for less than €1.
Surfbox, based in Kilkenny, says 100 Ryanair passengers a day are printing off their boarding cards at its kiosks in Dublin airport, which were installed three months ago. The company has now opened kiosks in Cork, Shannon and Liverpool airports.
The estimated loss in ancillary revenue to Ryanair stands at about €117,000 per month. Brilliant! Keep up the good work Surfbox!
Ryanair, the World’s most hated airline, are planning on increasing the “fine” passengers who forget to print out their own boarding cards are made to pay to €100.
The airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, has confirmed plans by Ryanair to increase the €40 charge to €100 – a 150% hike.
Mr O’Leary claimed the fee increase would help eliminate the number of passengers who show up at check-in desks without their boarding pass.
The latest price hike by Ryanair is another move by the airline to lower its own costs and comes shortly after the hated carrier phased out check-in desks in an attempt to achieve savings.
However, it retains a number of check-in desks at airports to allow passengers to drop off their baggage which costs €15 for the first item and €35 for a second if booked online and a shocking €30 and €70 respectively if checked in at the airport.
Mr O’Leary justified the increase in the cost of issuing boarding cards to travellers at airports on the basis that “only a tiny number of passengers” still arrive for a flight without a printed ticket. What a prat.
“You really now must check in before you get to the airport. If you don’t the fine is €40 and if that doesn’t get rid of them all within a very short order, we double that fine to €100,” said Mr O’Leary. “We don’t want people showing up without the pre-printed boarding card.”
However, Ryanair has not formally indicated when the fee increase – which is more than double the existing one – will come into effect.
Meanwhile, the number of claims for compensation against airlines over denied boarding, cancellations and long delays has increased dramatically during the first half of 2009.
The Commission for Aviation Regulation has reported a 140% increase in the number of valid complaints received between January and June this year compared to the same period in 2008.
Although the CAR received 1,300 queries during the first half of 2009 relating difficulties encountered by air passengers, only 242 related to the EU rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding, cancellations, long delays or downgrading.
However, the CAR said the 242 valid complaints compared to just 173 received during the first half of 2008. The vast majority of 113 cases due to be investigated by the Aviation Regulator relate to the cancellation of flights by airlines, with 15 cases linked to passengers being denied boarding and nine incidents of long delays.
Ryanair accounted for most complaints. No surprises there then.