British Airways whose tagline has been 'the world's
favourite airline' has been overtaken by our friends Ryanair
whom it has been recorded carried more passengers in August 2005
than the whole of BA. This could have something to do with
the Gate Gourmet catering fiasco/strike and increasing
competition. Ryanair's latest monthly figures for
August show that BA carried 156,000 fewer passengers than the
Irish airline which saw numbers soar by 27% to 3.257m. As
usual, Ryanair's Chief Executive had something to say:
'It's official. Ryanair has today become the world's
favourite airline. Last month, Ryanair's traffic
exceeded BA's worldwide passengers across its entire
network.'
Whilst the Beetle does not believe that just because
Ryanair's figures exceed British Airways' Ryanair can
take over British Airway's mantle of being the world's
favourite airline. This seems a little excessive given that
Ryanair does not fly long haul, nor has anything like BA's
coverage, provides next to no in-flight service and benefited in
passenger volume particularly as a result of BA's strike
fiasco during the month of August. Ryanair's success
was put down to growing passenger volumes due to Ryanair's
guarantee of no fuel surcharges. And not forgetting that
Michael O'Leary likes to have the last word, he went on to
say: 'At least on Ryanair, customers can buy a sandwich with
the £100 they have saved over BA's high fares and that's
why BA are now officially just second choice'.
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51 holiday makers, mostly Belgians but including five Britons and
fifteen Germans, were told that their flight from Carcassone to
Charleroi airport, Brussels airport had been cancelled due to bad
weather and would not be replaced. They were forced to hire
a bus and drive 600 miles home after they were told that the next
aircraft out of Carcassone would be in 10 days time. The 51
passengers led by a Belgian window cleaner, clubbed together to
rent a vehicle for €4,000 (£2,700) to drive home to
Charleroi in Belgium. “They abandoned us there as if we were
dogs,” said Gauthier Renders, the 28-year-old window cleaner
from Brussels. “There were children there and even an old
woman with a walking stick. They didn't even give us a glass
of water.” He continued: “At the Ryanair desk they said
there were no available flights for ten days. Everything was
fully booked. They said that some of us could get home via Gerona
in Spain but that was 200 miles away and there were only 15
places available. They also said they wouldn't
pay for us to get there. So I looked for a bus in the Yellow
Pages and we were on the road by 9pm.” The bus company
provided two drivers and after a 16-hour drive the coach arrived
in Belgium, on Tuesday.
“That's a long trip and everyone was pretty frustrated
when we got there. Ryanair said they would refund our return
flight – half the price of the original ticket – but said that it
would take three weeks for the money to arrive,” Mr Renders
said. “They don't care about the bad publicity; they
know they are a cheap airline and that people will use them again
just because they are cheap. But not me: my wife and I will never
fly Ryanair again.”