INCLUDING ALBANIA, FRANCE, GERMANY, ITALY, POLAND, & PORTUGAL ROUTES

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (16 Feb) launched rescue fares from just €24.99 for passengers affected by Wizz Air’s latest cancellation of even more routes to/from Albania, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

These latest cuts follow Wizz Air’s sudden cancellation of 21 routes to/from Hungary, Romania, Luxembourg, Serbia and Slovenia, and removal of 5 Poland-based aircraft and cancellation of 19 Polish routes in recent weeks, as the airline’s operation continues to shrink.

Ryanair’s Head of Comms, Jade Kirwan said:

“While Wizz Air continues to shrink, cutting both routes and aircraft across Europe, Ryanair – Europe’s most reliable and low fare airline – is saving the day yet again, offering rescue fares from just €24.99 for Wizz Air passengers affected by this latest round of sudden cancellations. Ryanair’s rescue fares are available to book now at ryanair.com.”

RYANAIR CALLS ON OSSIAN SMYTH TO CORRECT HIS FALSE STATEMENT ABOUT RYANAIR PRICING

Ryanair, No.1 airline, today (15 Feb) called on Green Minister, Ossian Smyth, to correct the absurd and false claims he made this week that Ryanair’s air fares to London and Paris were “more expensive” than competitor airlines. As with other Green Ministers (for Transport and for Tourism), it seems that Ossian Smyth can’t add, can’t subtract, and can’t find a Ryanair low fare flight either!

Ryanair today published a table of air fares for the dates quoted by this silly Green Minister (15^th, 16^th and 17^th Feb) which shows that Ryanair offers lower fares than Aer Lingus to both London and Paris on these 3 days. In fact, competitor air fares are in some cases more than double those of Ryanair.

Ryanair called on silly Green Minister Ossian Smyth to correct his false and inaccurate claims. Ryanair is forwarding a “Basic Maths for Dummies” book to Minister Smyth so he can improve his sums and are also sending him a €50 Ryanair travel voucher as he clearly needs a short break, since he appears to have lost touch with reality.

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“Minster Ossian Smyth’s false claims this week show that he is just another Green Minister who can’t add, can’t subtract, and hasn’t a clue about air travel on/off the island of Ireland. It’s hard to believe that this Green Minister can’t find a cheaper Ryanair fare, when millions of Irish consumers can on a daily basis. He should snap up one of Ryanair’s low fares quickly while his colleague Transport Minister Eamon Ryan presides over a traffic cap at Dublin Airport, which means that Dublin cannot grow in 2024, and as demand increases, air fares under these silly Green Ministers will rise.

Ryanair had hoped to base more aircraft in Dublin, offering lower fares to Irish citizens/visitors, but failed Green Ministers – who cannot deliver their own Aviation Policy which is to grow traffic and tourism, means that Dublin capacity is capped, aircraft and growth are being lost to other EU airports, and air fares to/from Dublin are rising. If Minister Smyth is worried about higher air fares, perhaps he should talk to Green Minister Ryan and Green Minister Martin, and lift the Dublin Airport cap, which would allow Ryanair to grow traffic, lower fares, and grow tourism at Dublin Airport and for Ireland.

Ryanair strongly recommends the book “Basic Maths for Dummies” to Green Minister Smyth. We think his time would be better spent improving his addition and subtraction instead of making silly and false claims about Ryanair air fares or Ryanair’s growth in Ireland when everyone – except silly Green Ministers – knows that Ryanair offers the lowest fares on every route, every day, which is why this year Ryanair expects to grow from 184m to 200m passengers, but Eamon Ryan has ensured that none of this growth is being delivered in Ireland.”  

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (15 Feb) announced its latest partnership with leading travel company, TUI, who will now be authorised to offer Ryanair flights, seats, and bags to their customers as part of their holiday packages on the condition that they do not overcharge customers for Ryanair products. The deal will also guarantee TUI customers that their correct contact and payment info is provided to Ryanair, ensuring that they have direct access to their myRyanair account and receive important flight information straight to their email.

This deal puts TUI in stark contrast to the unauthorised OTA Pirates who continue to scam and overcharge customers with hidden mark-ups and provide fake customer contact and payment information to Ryanair. TUI customers will now not only benefit from TUI displaying Ryanair’s real low prices, without hidden mark-ups and providing correct customer contact and payment details to Ryanair but will continue to benefit from flexible payment plans and ATOL protection and will no longer need to complete Ryanair’s customer verification process which unauthorised OTA Pirates’ customers must continue to do.

TUI is Ryanair’s third approved OTA partner, alongside loveholidays and Kiwi, as the airline continues to demonstrate how OTAs can work transparently with airlines without scamming or duping customer with hidden mark-up, overcharges, and invented “service” fees.

Ryanair’s Dara Brady said:

“We are pleased to announce this partnership with TUI, which will enable TUI customers to now book Ryanair flights, seats, and bags as part of their holiday package with the guarantee that they will have full price transparency of Ryanair products, and that they will receive any information regarding their flight directly from Ryanair as well as having direct access to their booking through their myRyanair account. This deal separates TUI from the OTA Pirates who continue to dupe and scam consumers by unlawfully screenscraping Ryanair’s website and mis-selling our flights with egregious hidden mark-ups and overcharges.”

Peter Krüger, Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Executive Officer Holiday Experiences, TUI Group, said:

“The new agreement follows the Group’s strategy of greater digitalisation of the business segments. The cooperation with Ryanair will now further expand the range of dynamically packaged TUI holidays and at the same time achieve a further milestone in digitalization. In addition, the cooperation also contributes to our growth strategy – the aim is to achieve additional growth through more products and new guests.”

David Schelp, CEO Markets & Airlines, TUI Group, said:

“More hotels, more flight connections, more excursions, and activities while traveling and at home – we are creating even more choice for our guests. The agreement we have now reached will create more travel options for our guests than ever before. In the UK in particular, our guests will be able to choose from an even wider range of flights in future – and furthermore to a strong program with TUI Airline’s own flights.”

DUBLIN AIRPORT LOSES 3 AIRCRAFT, 16 NEW ROUTES, AND OVER 200 JOBS TO SOUTHERN ITALY

Ryanair, Ireland’s favourite airline, today (15 Feb) called on Green Transport Minister, Eamon Ryan, to take urgent action to lift the traffic cap at Dublin Airport or quit and let someone else do the job. Ryanair today announced it has switched 3 aircraft, 16 new routes, and over 200 jobs to Southern Italy. These aircraft would have gone to Dublin but have been blocked by the artificial traffic cap. Ireland is now closed for business due to this artificial traffic cap and Ireland is losing traffic and tourism growth to other EU airports under a Green Transport Minister and a Green Tourism Minister, Catherine Martin.

Irish Transport Minister, Eamon Ryan, wrongly claims that the Dublin Airport traffic cap is a “planning matter” in which he can’t interfere. Yet he has no problem interfering in planning for the Dublin Metro which he claims will be “approved this year”. As always with this Green’s Transport Minister, he has no problem interfering in planning for trains but refuses to take any action when Dublin Airport and Irish tourism are losing aircraft jobs and visitors to other EU airports. Minister Ryan should now instruct Dublin Airport on an interim basis to lift this artificial traffic cap and allow Irish tourism to grow or his Govt. should pass legislation raising this cap until the planning process can be completed, which could take 3 or 4 years. If Minister Ryan is unwilling to act, then Green Tourism Minister, Catherine Martin, should take action instead.

Ryanair’s Michael O’ Leary said:

“Dublin Airport has today lost 3 aircraft, 16 routes and over 200 jobs to Southern Italy as a direct result of Transport Minister Ryan’s inaction and incompetence. His own aviation policy commits him to growing Irish aviation and tourism, but instead of delivering growth, after 4 years as Transport Minister, he has delivered a traffic cap at Dublin Airport which could last for 3 or 4 years if left to a couple of county councillors in Fingal and Ireland’s archaic planning system.

Traffic growth at Dublin Airport cannot be fobbed off by a Green Minister to the planning process. He should intervene to lift this cap on an interim basis or quit. He has no problem intervening in the planning process for the airport metro and he should now do likewise with the Dublin Airport traffic cap.

Dublin Airport is the main gateway to the island of Ireland and our tourism industry, which needs a Transport Minister and a Tourism Minister who are determined to deliver growth, not Green sound bites to cover 4 years of inaction and incompetence. The regions of Southern Italy are today celebrating record traffic and tourism growth which would otherwise have gone to Dublin if it were not for Transport Minister Eamon Ryan’s abject failure to deliver his own aviation growth policy.”

Ryanair called again for NATS CEO Martin Rolfe to resign (or be removed by the UK Govt) as East Midlands Airport is forced to close today (14 Feb) causing hundreds of passengers to suffer unnecessary delays due to further NATS Air Traffic Control (ATC) staff shortages.

Today’s forced closure of East Midlands Airport due to NATS staff shortages follows the NATS system failure in Aug last, which caused cancellations and long delays for hundreds of thousands of UK passengers, as well as repeated NATS staff shortages and a further system collapse at Gatwick on 9^th Dec last, disrupting thousands more UK passengers unnecessarily. These repeated NATS failures are unacceptable and make clear that it is time for overpaid CEO, Martin Rolfe, to quit or be dismissed and let someone competent take over.  

A Ryanair spokesperson said:

“It is inexplicable that despite the major NATS system collapse 6 months ago, which caused cancellations and long delays for hundreds of thousands of UK passengers, and repeated NATS staff shortages, overpaid CEO, Martin Rolfe, has still not taken any action to fix NATS. As a result, more UK passengers are suffering delays today (14 Feb) as East Midlands Airport is forced to close due to further NATS staff shortages.

It is unacceptable that passengers continue to face disruption due to NATS mismanagement. UK passengers need a competent UK ATC service and Martin Rolfe has repeatedly proven that he cannot deliver it. If he cannot do his job, then Martin Rolfe should immediately resign and let someone competent run UK ATC.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (14 Feb) welcomes the judgments of the Milan Court of Appeal conclusively rejecting Lastminute and Viaggiare’s claims that Ryanair’s exclusive online distribution model constitutes an abuse of a dominant position.  

The Court confirmed that Ryanair’s exclusive online distribution model was justified “in terms of containing operating costs and eliminating the costs associated with intermediation in ticket sales. This has contributed to the application of competitive fares – which undoubtedly benefit consumers as well – and to the possibility of having a direct channel of communication with them for any possible need for information and updates on flights. No harm to users, therefore, was established…”

Ryanair has long campaigned to protect customers from price gouging by OTAs who continue to dupe unsuspecting consumers by unlawfully scraping Ryanair’s website, including by overcharging for air fares and ancillary services, using fake customer accounts, fake customer payment cards and fake customer emails. This can be hugely detrimental to customers who, apart from being overcharged, cannot access their Ryanair bookings, make the necessary security declarations, access refunds, or receive direct email communications (such as online check-in reminders) from Ryanair. This historical and precedent-setting Court ruling is a major step forward in protecting unsuspecting consumers from being overcharged by OTAs, and will help to ensure that Ryanair customers always get the lowest fares, the best customer service, and real time email communications.

Ryanair has recently concluded pro-consumer deals with the OTAs Love Holidays and Kiwi so that they can market our flights to their customers, without hidden mark-ups and with full transparency for passengers to protect them against overcharging.

Ryanair’s Dara Brady said:

“We welcome these Milan Court rulings which establish that Ryanair’s exclusive online distribution model is pro-consumer.

OTAs have for years relied upon screenscrapers, fake customer accounts, single-use payment cards and fake customer email addresses to make bookings on Ryanair’s website in breach of the Terms of Use. This can cause huge inconvenience and expense to customers as often OTAs not only overcharge for fares, bags and seats, but they also block customers from managing their bookings or receiving important flight updates from Ryanair (such as online check-in reminders).

This historic Court ruling has reinforced Ryanair’s determination to pursue justice for our customers to ensure they get access to the lowest fares, cannot be overcharged by OTAs, and that they have direct access to manage their bookings and to receive up to date flight information.

We encourage our customers to book directly with us through ryanair.com or our mobile app.  Ryanair strongly objects to OTAs mis-selling our flights and overcharging consumers but are willing to deal with any OTA that undertakes not to overcharge and dupe our passengers, as shown by our recent pro-consumer deals with Love Holidays and Kiwi.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (12^th Feb) announced a new ground handling partnership with Skytanking Aviation Services, effective from April 2024. This partnership will see the leading aviation services provider support Ryanair’s growing operation with ground handling services across key airports, such as Eindhoven.

As Europe’s No.1 airline, operating over 3,600 daily flights carrying over 183.5m passengers p.a., Ryanair requires efficient and cost-effective ground handling services that support the airline’s industry leading on time performance.

Ryanair’s Deputy Director Ground Operations, Tom Kelly said:

“Ryanair is delighted to announce our new ground handling partnership with Skytanking. This initial 6-year deal will ensure that Ryanair can continue to deliver its industry-leading turnaround times, a vital part in keeping our fares low for our customers. We look forward to working with Skytanking and developing the partnership further in the years to come in the UK, the Netherlands and right across Europe”.

Skytanking Aviation Services General Manager – Ground Handling, Craig Denmark said:

“The entire Skytanking Aviation Services team is excited to grow our service portfolio with Ryanair. As we continue to diversify our services and expand our ground handling footprint, our focus is on delivering exactly what Ryanair and its customers require, and that is a safe, professional, and on-time operation. With this alignment, we are confident that this will be a successful partnership.”