Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
RYANAIR RAGE
MP to shame firm in ‘rip-off add-on costs’ £1.9k blow as OAP suffers plane ordeal Pilots’ fury as O’leary grovels over flight crisis Crews tell boss: Latest vow is too little, too late
AIRLINE passengers get a “rough deal” from budget carriers charging for add-on extras, a campaigning MP will warn next week.
Labour’s Darren Jones, an ex-consumer rights lawyer, plans to “name and shame” an airline he feels ripped him off, in a parliamentary debate.
He hit out at top-up costs for seat booking, boarding passes and baggage, following Ryanair’s cancellation of thousands of flights and the collapse of no-frills firm Monarch.
Mr Jones said: “I’ve concerns that some do it without following the spirit and letter of consumer law, resulting in consumer detriment and a legitimate case for customer refunds.” A PENSONER lost a holiday flight to the Canaries twice after Ryanair cancelled and Monarch then went bust.
Nora Heys, 79, has now had to spend more than £1,200 to fly with another airline. And in another blow, she misread the price when booking with Thomson and ended up paying double what she had intended.
Facing a cancellation fee of nearly £400, she said she has to stick with the flights.
Nora, from Salford, Greater Manchester is still waiting for a refund on the Monarch tickets and in total has spent £1,955. She said: “I’m so worried. I feel sick. It’s upsetting. It’s going to be hard financially now.”
Ryanair and Thomson were both contacted for comment. RYANAIR pilots have hit back at boss Michael O’leary after he sent them a grovelling apology over the flight cancellations crisis.
The airline chief also insisted remarks about them being “precious” were aimed at rival firms, and vowed to boost pay in a bid to keep them.
But crews blasted his “desperate ramblings” and said: “This is too little, too late.”
The Irish carrier previously offered a cash bonus to entice some crew to change holiday plans, to avoid further chaos after it cancelled 18,000 flights.
When pilots rejected it, Mr O’leary inflamed the row at Ryanair’s annual meeting by calling them “precious” and “full of self-importance”. He added: “I’d challenge any pilot to explain how this is a difficult job or how it is they are overworked.”
Now, in his U-turn, he has insisted: “I have the utmost respect and admiration for Ryanair’s pilot team.” His unprecedented letter promised better pay and was a personal apology “to each of you for the disruptions you have experienced”. Mr O’leary, 56, also said his remarks were aimed at “pilots of competitor airlines and their unions”. And he warned crew against taking jobs with other operators – particularly Norwegian, where hundreds are believed to have decamped, claiming it will not survive the winter.
Furious crew said they will continue plans to form a union. In a letter to Mr O’leary on behalf of all Ryanair pilots, seen by the Mirror, they said: “You’ve considered us as nothing more than aircraft parts.
“The schedule will continue to fall apart if it is based on this shoestring management style. We will not settle for some temporary duct-tape solutions.”
A captain who has been with Ryanair for six years added of the chief ’s apology: “These are the ramblings of a desperate man. It shows the arrogance of O’leary.
“To state his derogatory comments towards us were misreported... is astonishing. He is also attempting to apply Ryanair’s oldest tactic of divide and conquer. Offering increases in pay and conditions to match Jet2 and Norwegian, but only in the bases where they have competitors, is an attempt to divide the workforce.
“It shows management have no real appetite to fix this unfair and toxic place to work.” Another pilot told ITV: “If they don’t make a serious change, then I can see the cancellations carrying on next year. A lot of people were outraged and furious.”
The Civil Aviation Authority vowed to monitor Ryanair’s treatment of passengers in the wake of cancellations.