Ryanair

[kraktoa]

It doesn't look like it's effected BRS yet. I'm wondering if Ryanair are short of pilots and crew? If you look at Jet2s expansion to STN and BHX, they are bound to have attracted Ryanair crew, same for Blue Air in southern europe and Norwegian in the rest of Europe. Expanding airlines like them might be attractive for Ryanair crews.

If recruiting and retaining crew is major worry for Ryanair then they have only themselves to blame. For years anecdotal stories of low paid over worked crew forced to buy their own unforms, long shifts with very little turn around times etc etc. Has the airline gotten too large to manage? Will retaining passenger loyalty be the next big problem for the airline? Is there a AlItalia take over in the pipeline?

 

[Marko1]

Just one cancellation tomorrow. Castellon

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It's an absolute shambles.

Ryanair are saying that their on-time performance has been suffering so they've decided to cancel all these flights so that they can improve, apparently by having more aircraft and crews available to take up any serious delays. So what, I'm sure most people would rather the flights operated late than be cancelled.

They blame the weather and industrial action by overseas atcs. The likes of easyJet, Jet2 and Monarch have also been affected by those events but haven't taken this drastic action.

Coupled with this they say that because the annual leave period is altering they have crews with an excess of days owed that must be used up this year.

What is absolutely disgraceful is the way that Ryanair announced the measures one day and put it into effect the next. They must have know about this weeks ago. They could have announced it then which at least would have given people the chance to make other arrangements.

Our son and his wife are on the morning FR to Malaga from BRS tomorrow. It appears to be operating but they've been trying all day to confirm this. Whether they get back in a week's time is another matter.

My wife and I have been saying for some time now that we are getting well and truly fed up with air travel. She has never liked flying but it's been a necessary evil for her to be able to travel abroad down the years. I used to enjoy the flight as part of the holiday. Not any more - it's now something to be endured for us and this sort of thing just adds to our discontent.

When we went to Glasgow with easyJet a couple of weeks ago we were on tenterhooks because the airline had cancelled our flight (EZY405) on two occasions in the previous three weeks. With most flights out of BRS rammed there would be little chance of finding an alternative. The same will apply with Ryanair's passengers.

Addendum (16.9.17)

Posters on the Dried Plum are saying this debacle is really about crews leaving Ryanair in droves leaving them short-handed.

 

[Jerry]

If recruiting and retaining crew is major worry for Ryanair then they have only themselves to blame. For years anecdotal stories of low paid over worked crew forced to buy their own unforms, long shifts with very little turn around times etc etc. Has the airline gotten too large to manage? Will retaining passenger loyalty be the next big problem for the airline? Is there a AlItalia take over in the pipeline?

I do think they need a culture shift as an airline to retain staff and passengers and a start would be to get rid of Michael O'Leary.
I would be surprised if they took over Alitalia, i'd have thought they would be more suited to the likes of Lufthansa or IAG.

Our son and his wife are on the morning FR to Malaga from BRS tomorrow. It appears to be operating but they've been trying all day to confirm this. Whether they get back in a week's time is another matter.

My sister and her partner are booked with Ryanair to Dublin on the 29th out LBA. I've warned her about it and she's keeping an eye out for any emails. She's paid for it on her credit card so has insurance and Dublin has lots of options to get back to the UK but not everyone will be at destinations where it will be easy to get back from or have the finances to pay to get back and i doubt very much Ryanair will rebook people on other flights. For this to happen they would've known for a while so why not charter aircraft from other airlines to get back on track. Look at BA with the strikes they brought in Qatar Airways to help them out. Look at Vueling last summer they got in a mess and chartered in loads of aircraft to help get back on track. Pretty sure CWL saw an A330 doing BCN! Ryanair could've done something like that. It may have been expensive but surely better than the bad PR they are going to get now.

 

[kraktoa]

If their end of year has changed and staff have leave to take then emplyment law allows for buy back of that leave. Or carryover to next year. That would have been an easy passenger friendly option. But to do that would have meant an acceptance of managerial failure. The despicable management team decided to let the passengers take the hit as they know well that lots of people dont want to go through the trauma and time of seeking a refund for tickets that are quite low priced. Same with compensation. Hope someone sues this airline.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

From what I've been reading it may also be something to do with pilot hours. The way Ryanair looked at it was different to the IAA and I think it's cone back to bite them. Pilots are exceeding their max flying ours on a due to changes of months. This may go on for a few weeks yet

 

[andrewgreen]

From what I've been reading it may also be something to do with pilot hours. The way Ryanair looked at it was different to the IAA and I think it's cone back to bite them. Pilots are exceeding their max flying ours on a due to changes of months. This may go on for a few weeks yet

That would still imply a lack of staff !

 

[Jerry]

That would still imply a lack of staff !

They have reportedly lost a lot of cabin crew and Norwegian Airlines have recruited 140 of their pilots.

 

[kraktoa]

Prune also suggesting that they are not accepting new aircraft. Thatmust have a financial penalty.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Cancellations now announced until 20 September

Bristol affected as follows:

Sun 17 Sept Castellon
Mon 18 Sept Dublin (FR 509/508 in at 2045 and out at 2110)
Tues 19 Sept None
Wed 20 Sept As Monday

Cancelling the last of the three Dublin rotations of the day seems odd on the face of it. It must be supposed that either FR 508/509 is the least used or there are other wider operational reasons.

Aer Lingus Regional's (Stobart) last arrival from DUB is 1840 and out to DUB at 1910.

 

[Aviador]

This has been a complete PR disaster for Ryanair. It doesn't seem like 12 months since they announced the airlines new customer service drive. All their hard work built up over many months has been blown away in just a matter of days.

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

Cancelling the last of the three Dublin rotations of the day seems odd on the face of it. It must be supposed that either FR 508/509 is the least used or there are other wider operational reasons.

Probably to do with EASA FTL's. The crew would be on a 4 sector day so cancelling the last two means in reality the crew can probably be used from 8am the next day. Which thus means that they are not cancelling a longer sector or a less infrequent sector the next day as the crew can be used on those sectors.

 

[andrewgreen]

What a shambles , i cant see how a company as large as Ryanair can get things so wrong . However they try to gloss over it or spin it they must have seen this coming if they didnt it even more surprising !

 

[Jerry]

FR508 and FR509 Dublin to Bristol and Bristol to Dublin have been cancelled.

Looks like Ryanair could lose more pilots to Norwegian Airlines as they are setting up a pilot base in Dublin which would be about 40 strong.
http://m.independent.ie/business/ir...t-of-cancelled-flights-released-36141910.html

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Full list of Ryanair cancellations until the end of October

Has now been published.

BRS seems to be very lightly affected.

This week Castellon was cancelled on Sunday with the evening DUB (FR508/509) cancelled today and on Wednesday. The only other cancellation this week is the morning DUB on Thursday (21st): FR 504 normally arrives from DUB at 0740 and departs as FR 505 for DUB at 0805.

After this week only the afternoon DUB is cancelled each Wednesday from 27 September throughout the period till the end of October: FR 506 normally arrives from DUB at 1600 and departs as FR 507 for DUB at 1625.

http://fr-prod-static-pdf.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/flightcancellations.pdf

 

[kraktoa]

Chancers were bulk buying cheap tickets in the hope that flight was canx and they could collect 261 comp

 

[kraktoa]

900 hr limit per year. Does it include time spent on plane when on ground for various checks etc.

By my calculation. Pilot does 12 hr shift. Of which 10 hr is flying. So he can do 90 days of flying. Roster of 5 on 3 off means pilot works only approx 18 weeks out of 52 in a year.

Or have i messed this up as MOL says.

 

[Jerry]

Pilot does 12 hr shift. Of which 10 hr is flying.

I didn't think they could work that long? Thought it was only 9 and half hours?

 

[kraktoa]

MOL just mentioned that pilots can only fly 18 hr per week.

 

[Jerry]

MOL just mentioned that pilots can only fly 18 hr per week.

But is flying time different from working time? I know as truck driver my driving time is completely different to my working time limits. I'm just wondering if it's similar with pilot's?