LOOKS FORWARD TO WORKING WITH DAVE CALHOUN AND STEPHANIE POPE TO ELIMINATE BOEING DELIVERY DELAYS

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (25 Mar) said it welcomes today’s immediate management changes in the Boeing management team in Seattle. Stephanie Pope has been appointed to lead Boeing Commercial Aeroplanes effective today, replacing Stan Deal who has retired. Ryanair believes these changes are necessary and good for Boeing and its customers.

Ryanair looks forward to continuing to work with Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun and BCA CEO Stephanie Pope to eliminate the Boeing 737 delivery delays, which is slowing Ryanair’s growth through 2024.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

“We welcome these much-needed management changes in Seattle. We look forward to working with Stephanie Pope to accelerate B737 aircraft deliveries to customers, including Ryanair in Europe, for Summer and Autumn 2024. We also look forward to continuing to work with Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun and CFO Brian West, and to helping Boeing recover its aircraft deliveries so that Ryanair can continue to grow strongly as Boeing’s no.1 customer here in Europe.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (18 Mar) celebrated milestone of 0.5M passengers carried to/from Košice with the launch of its brand-new summer schedule, offering 5 exciting routes: to Dublin, Liverpool, Prague, London Stansted and brand new destination – Zadar.

Ryanair’s Kosice Summer ‘24 schedule will deliver:

• 1 new route – Zadar
• 5 routes
• 0.1M passengers to/from Kosice p.a.
• Support for over 100 jobs

Ryanair’s growing schedule for Summer ’24 will give Košice’s citizens/visitors more travel choices at the lowest fares in Europe when booking their Summer ‘24 getaways and growing both inbound tourism and jobs at the same time.

Košice’s citizens/visitors can now book a well-deserved Summer getaway at Ryanair’s low fares from just €21.99  one-way, for travel until end of May ‘24, only available on ryanair.com.

Ryanair’s Country Manager CEE & Baltics Alicja Golebiowska, said:

“As Europe’s biggest airline, Ryanair is delighted to celebrate milestone of 0.5 million passengers carried through Kosice with the launch of our Summer ’24 schedule, providing 5 routes to the likes of Dublin, London, and our latest addition to Kosice schedule – sunny Zadar.

To allow our customers and visitors to/from Kosice to book their Summer getaway at the lowest fares, we are launching a special promo with seats available from just €21.99 for travel between Apr and May ’24 at www.ryanair.com.”

Košice Airport´s CEO Deputy and Member of the Management Board Tomáš Jančuš said:

“We are thrilled to witness Ryanair’s escalating confidence in our market. This summer, Ryanair presents its most extensive schedule ever from Košice, featuring five routes. These connections promise substantial benefits for the entire Eastern Slovakia, fostering growth in both tourism and business opportunities. We are particularly excited about the new route to Zadar, which significantly reduces the travel time to the Adriatic coast from over 10 hours to just 90 minutes.”

Ryanair has today (15 Mar) announced that it has added over 4,000 extra seats between the UK and Germany ahead of the highly anticipated UEFA European Football Championship taking place this summer. Ryanair’s extra flights to Cologne, Dortmund and Frankfurt from both London Stansted and Manchester airports are now available to book on ryanair.com.

Ryanair’s Head of Comms, Jade Kirwan said:

“We’ve had record bookings from football fans travelling to Germany for what is set to be a spectacular European Championship this summer. To support this overwhelming demand, we have added over 4,000 extra seats from London and Manchester to Cologne, Dortmund, and Frankfurt so that England fans can catch all the big games and soak in that unreplaceable match day atmosphere.

Seats are expected to sell out fast so fans should book their low-fare Ryanair flights now to avoid missing out.”

Ryanair, the UK’s no.1 airline, today (15 Mar) called on NATS CEO Martin Rolfe to step down or be replaced after the CAA’s report into the NATS system collapse in Aug 2023, showed that NATS had no pre-planning, no back up plan, and no engineers on duty (they were all sitting at home in their pyjamas) during last year’s Aug bank holiday weekend.

NATS CEO Martin Rolfe also misled Parliament claiming just 575 flight delays, when the CAA report confirmed that over 700,000 passengers were affected by Martin Rolfe’s latest “business continuity” failure. If UK Transport Secretary Mark Harper had any backbone, then Martin Rolfe would be sacked and somebody competent appointed to run UK ATC services, and to ensure business continuity instead of Martin Rolfe who delivers business failures despite receiving £1.4m per year.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

“Over the last 5 years, UK ATC have delivered repeated staff shortages and system breakdowns. The most serious of which was last year’s 28 Aug UK ATC collapse, which the CAA have now confirmed disrupted the travel plans of over 700,000 passengers. Martin Rolfe and NATS produced a Whitewash Report, which misled Parliament as to the causes and effects of this latest NATS failure. Having delivered repeated ATC failures, Martin Rolfe will now deliver the comedy slot at the Airspace World 2024 Conference next Tues, where he will entertain all attendees with his views on “Crisis Management in ATM: Ensuring Business Continuity”. Sadly no one knows less about business continuity than Martin Rolfe. This could be one of the shortest presentations in conference history given that he specialises in creating crises rather than solving them. We look forward to hearing how Matin Rolfe’s engineers were sitting at home in their pyjamas during last year’s Aug bank holiday, one of the busiest travel weekends of the year, and then when NATS systems collapsed, they couldn’t even log into their own computers.

The only way Martin Rolfe could ensure business continuity for UK ATC, is to step down or be replaced by somebody competent. Martin Rolfe has repeatedly shown that he is not this person, and Transport Minister Mark Harper should replace him before he delivers more damage, more staff shortages, and more service breakdowns at UK ATC this summer.”

CAA REPORT SHOWS NATS MISLED PARLIAMENT OVER FLIGHT DELAYS, ENGINEERS AT HOME
AND LACK OF PRE-PLANNING

Ryanair, the UK’s no.1 airline, today (14 Mar) welcomed the CAA’s interim report into NATS’s ATC collapse on 28 Aug last, which disproves false claims made by CEO, Martin Rolfe, in NATS’s “Whitewash” Report published last Sept, including;

1. NATS claimed just 575 flights were “delayed” (approx. 100,000 pass.), but CAA confirms over 700,000 passengers were disrupted.
2. NATS CEO, Martin Rolfe, claimed “engineers worked as quickly as they could”, yet CAA confirms NATS engineers were not at work but were “at home due to the bank holiday”.
3. Under Martin Rolfe’s management, UK NATS has a lack of pre-planning, documentation, and coordination.

Given their mismanagement and incompetence, UK NATS must now reimburse airlines and passengers for the costs they suffered as a result of NATS’s system collapse on 28 Aug last. NATS overpaid CEO (£1.3m p.a.), should now be dismissed and get someone competent to run the UK ATC system for airlines and passengers.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

“Today’s CAA report rubbishes many of the false claims made by NATS in their Sept 2023 “Whitewash” report. The CAA confirms that over 700,000 passengers were impacted, and not just 575 flights (approx. 100,000 passengers), which Martin Rolfe originally claimed in front of the UK Parliament Transport Committee.

The CAA report confirms (unbelievably) that NATS engineers were sitting at home in their pyjamas on the UK’s August bank holiday weekend, which is one of the busiest travel weekends of the year for air travel. In any properly managed ATC service, engineers would be onsite to cover system breakdowns instead of sitting at home unable to log into the system. The fact that key NATS engineers were sitting at home during one of the peak travel weekends, combined with findings that NATS has a fundamental lack of pre-planning, documentation, and coordination, clearly demands senior management changes. Overpaid NATS CEO Martin Rolfe’s position in untenable. He should be removed, and somebody competent employed to run UK ATC, to ensure its engineers are at work during busy weekends and to ensure that UK NATS has a management team delivering a functional ATC system with adequate pre-planning, documentation, and coordination.  

UK airlines and passengers are paying NATS among the highest ATC fees in Europe. In Ryanair’s case, we pay over £100m p.a. and we are entitled to expect an efficient well-run service, rather than mismanagement and incompetence we suffered on 28 Aug 2023 due to the NATS system collapse. It’s time for Martin Rolfe to go, and if he won’t quit, then Transport Secretary Mark Harper (who owns 49% of NATS) should remove him.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (11 Mar) renewed its partnership with Vistair, a market leading provider of advanced Operational Content Management and Safety Management Systems for the aviation industry, for a further 5 years. As part of this renewed agreement, Ryanair will continue to use Vistair’s industry leading document management system, DocuNet, to streamline the creation, distribution, and maintenance of operational manuals as the airline continues to grow to 800 aircraft and 300 million passengers by 2034.

Ryanair’s Chief Operating Officer, Neal McMahon, said:

“We are pleased to announce a 5 year extension to our longstanding partnership with Vistair. As Europe’s No.1 airline, Vistair’s reliable and efficient document management system, DocuNet, has helped us maintain operational efficiency and responsiveness across our vast fleet and complex operations. DocuNet continues to meet our high expectations, contributing to our ongoing strong operational performance ensuring that Ryanair remains at the forefront of operational and compliance standards as we continue to grow to 800 aircraft and 300 million passengers by 2034.”

Dominic Clarke, Chief Commercial Officer at Vistair, added:

“We are delighted to extend our partnership with Ryanair. The renewal of this agreement reflects the trust Ryanair places in Vistair and DocuNet. As Europe’s largest airline group, superior operational performance is paramount. We look forward to continuing to support Ryanair in achieving operational excellence and maintaining the highest standards of compliance.”

In January 2024, Vistair and Comply365 announced their merger creating a leading global provider of compliance, safety and data intelligence technologies serving the aviation, defence, and rail industries.

USELESS GREEN MINISTER RYAN SHOULD “GROW…OR GO”

Ryanair today (Fri 8^th Mar), called on Ireland’s Transport Minister, Eamon Ryan, to “Grow or Go” as Spanish airport operator AENA yesterday unveiled plans to accelerate its traffic growth by 10% from 283m passengers in 2023 to 310m passengers by 2026. Over that same 4 years, Dublin Airport will stagnate under its 32m passenger cap, while Irish Transport Minister Eamon Ryan refuses to act.

TRAFFIC GROWTH	DUB APT	SPAIN’S APTS
2023	32m	283m
2024	32m	294m
2025	32m	300m
2026	32m	310m
GROWTH	0%	+10%

Minister Ryan’s National Aviation Policy commits him to grow routes, connectivity, tourism and jobs at Irish airports but all he has delivered after 4 years is a traffic cap at Dublin, which is sending Ireland’s aviation growth to Italy and Poland.

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“While Spain’s traffic, tourism, and jobs grow thanks to Ryanair’s investment in new aircraft and new routes, Dublin Airport stagnates under a 15 year old, outdated, traffic cap, and the idle failure of Transport Minister Eamon Ryan to take any action to deliver his own aviation growth strategy. Green Minister Eamon Ryan won’t intervene, won’t grow, and his inaction means 4 years of stagnation in Irish aviation & tourism while Spain and other EU airports continues to grow, thanks to Ryanair’s investment. The message is clear for Irish aviation and Irish tourism, which has become the laughing stock of Europe; Minister Eamon Ryan should either Grow…. or Go.”