\n Ryanair has been fined £24,000 by a court for misleading customers
\n over fares on its website and pressure is being placed on all
\n airlines to give an all inclusive price. Despite this, Ryanair
\n has said that it will continue to go against advertising
\n authorities which insist the airline include taxes and charges when
\n emailing customers with its latest offers. Ryanair is resisting
\n a ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority in Ireland (ASAI)
\n which upheld a complaint from ferry companies that Ryanair emails
\n to subscribers failed to include taxes and charges. The matter was
\n heard by the ASAI because the emails originated in Ireland. Ryanair
\n was ordered to include all costs in its emails, a ruling welcomed
\n by the ferry companies, 15 of which formed the 'Sail and Drive
\n Campaign' which aimed to end what it claimed were misleading
\n pricing policies from airlines. A spokesman for Ryanair defended
\n its stance: “We have not had a single complaint from
\n passengers, it is just a few ferry companies having a moan. These
\n emails are not adverts, they are private correspondence with
\n passengers and we will sue the ASAI for a breach of privacy if they
\n persist with this matter.” Ferry companies have pledged to
\n continue their battle against tax-exclusive fares. Hoverspeed
\n managing director Geoffrey Ede said: “It's about time the
\n relevant authorities took action to compel these so-called low-cost
\n airlines to advertise the real price of travel.”\n <\/p>\n
\n On another matter, Ryanair was recently found guilty in Chelmsford
\n Crown Court of six breaches of the Consumer Protection Act over the
\n price of flights advertised on its website. On six occasions,
\n Ryanair had failed to state that prices excluded taxes and charges
\n and was fined £24,000. However, the court ruled that the airline
\n was not misleading customers by putting a net fare on its home
\n page, provided it made clear charges would be added. In response,
\n Ryanair said it welcomed the ruling. “This dates back to 2003
\n and for the past two years we have stated that fares exclude taxes
\n and charges. This is a vindication of our policy,” said a
\n spokesman.\n <\/p>\n
\n A little while ago, we reported on a website set up to help pilots
\n working for the Irish budget airline exchange information about
\n their working conditions. Ryanair has now launched legal
\n proceedings over a campaign of “harassment and
\n intimidation” of its pilots. The British Airline Pilots
\n Association (Balpa) said the legal action was
\n “extraordinary” and was aimed at forcing it and the Irish
\n Airline Pilots Association to divulge the names of pilots who had
\n sent comments to the website. Ryanair told its Dublin-based pilots
\n in 2004 that if they do not sign new contracts tying them to the
\n company for five years, they will not be given training on the
\n airline's new fleet and could lose their jobs. Pilots were also
\n told that they would have to repay the full €15,000 cost of
\n training if they leave the airline before the five years has
\n expired. Ryanair is planning to replace ten Boeing 737-200s, based
\n in Ireland, with the larger and more fuel-efficient 737-800 by the
\n end of 2005 and more than 90 pilots in Dublin require retraining.\n <\/p>\n
Ryanair has been fined £24,000 by a court for misleading customers over fares on its website and pressure is being placed on all airlines to give an all inclusive price….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","css_class_manager_body_classes":"","css_class_manager_use_in_post_loop":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-1960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-main-article","tag-march-2005"],"yoast_head":"\n