Ryanair complaints — mission impossible

http://gospain.about.com/b/2008/09/28/ryanair-passengers-sue-for-compensation.htm

Considering how hard it is to file a Ryanair complaint and how few of those complaints are answered, it is not very surprising that many unhappy passengers eventually turn to the courts to settle their grievances with the rogue airline.

Read the original article to find out why boycotting Ryanair is the right thing to do.

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The airline’s press office and the representatives of Edelman, their official PR agency, declined to answer the questions raised by this article. The right of reply has been ignored by the company and their agents even though we sent it to both parties more than two weeks before the publishing date.

For author(s), date, resources and additional notes related to this article, please refer to the code BR00148a. The same code should be included with your editorial/proofreading notes.

Judge Smyth told us about Ryanair years ago — yet his efforts were wasted

Independent.ie

The largest Irish newspaper, the Independent, published a story about one of the biggest fiascoes ever experienced by Ryanair. The famous no-frills air transport company chose to legally challenge its own pilots for “bullying” each other through an online forum of Ryanair pilots. The airline’s main objective was to uncover the names of three most critical pilots. Of course, they pretended to seek the injunction by the Irish High Court to “protect” all the so-called bullied pilots, while in reality they wanted to punish or fire some of them.

After Ryanair’s lawyers initiated the case themselves, the airline lost.

⎢ High Court judge Mr Justice Thomas Smyth dismissed Ryanair’s action and said the only evidence of bullying was by Ryanair.

⎢ There was further embarrassment as the judge also made a finding of false evidence in relation to two Ryanair managers who had given evidence.

⎢ Mr Justice Smyth said there was no conspiracy in setting up the pilots website and it was not engaged in anything unlawful. He was satisfied it was changes in conditions which gave rise to the industrial unrest at Ryanair.

It took two hours for the Judge to read his 65-page verdict. He said something needed to mark his disapproval because this was one of only two times in the High Court he had felt it necessary to present his disapproval in such strong terms. He later awarded all costs against the offensive airline. To start with, Ryanair had to pay well over €1m to the Ryanair Pilot Group. Unfortunately nothing major has changed since that time, the airline only started preventing its employees from charging their mobile phones at work — because “every penny counts.”

We will be quoting parts of Judge Smyth’s amazingly specific verdict soon. Some of his lines should be titled “How not to run an airline” or maybe even “How to ruin an airline.” If he only knew the treatment of pilots and staff would not improve, on the contrary, he would have personally supervised the enforcement of his judgement. The judgement which was ignored by Ryanair as soon as the media storm passed. Judge Smyth retired that year.

Nonetheless, even though nothing has changed, his step-by-step guide will not disappoint even the most demanding Boycott Ryanair reader. It truly is a recipe for disaster. Watch this space for the next update.

(It will not take us very long to read the 65 pages but it might take some time to decide which parts are the most powerful and how we should present them in the context of our advisory website.)

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The airline’s press office and the representatives of Edelman, their official PR agency, declined to answer the questions raised by this article. The right of reply has been ignored by the company and their agents even though we sent it to both parties more than two weeks before the publishing date.

For author(s), date, resources and additional notes related to this article, please refer to the code BR00099a. The same code should be included with your editorial/proofreading notes.