Joe, If you think about the last 2 fatal incidents by European airlines in the last 5 years. Spanair crash in Madrid and Air France incident in 2009 both we’re a result of human error not mechanical issues.All European airlines have to abide by very strict guidelines regarding maintenence, serviceing etc…. all of this is overseen by national and central authorities. Given that Ryanair have a very young aircraft fleet they are less likely to suffer mechanical issues!
If you want to know more about the fuel incident go to avherald.com.

As bad as Ryanair is for customer services & delays I don’t think the company will cut back on passenger safety.
I personally know a few pilots and cabin crew and applaud their professional ethics.
They may complain about pay and conditions but passenger safety is top priority.

Fromyour link Joe, ”Thunderstorms on July 26th over Madrid, Spain (where the flights were due to land) caused delays and subsequent holding patterns for many flights that day.”
Yes,now ask what nationality of aircraft landed in the hour the ryanair aircraft were in the hold at Madrid that day?? yes you’ve guessed it spanish.7 of them,i’d be a lot more concerned at those carriers than Ryanair,They had plenty of fuel for their original destination,an over an hour of holding fuel and trip to valencia,I don’t see a problem,I see a witch hunt because Ryanair operate a lot of internal Spanish routes and the spanish are not happy about it,a few of their carriers are hanging by a thin thread and Spanair are already gone,as for the need of a mayday,ask any pilot about Spanish Air Traffic Control.
Joe you are talking absolute rubbish about the pilots not being comfortable,Do you really think a Licensed Aircraft Engineer is going to hand over the techlog to the Captain if he isn’t happy and then in turn the Captain Accept it?? Unlikely,the 737NG series are a very robust aircraft,Ryanair Utilise these Aircraft in peak times to almost max which they are perfectly entitled to do once they follow procedures which they do,of course you are going to get component failures
from time to time but as their safety record suggests these are handled more than adequately.

Really. Read the link above. The policy is called. “efficiency drive”

Usually people who complain about these things dont understand aviation procedures that much! I hate ryanair, but its the spanish govt trying to protect iberia! End of!

Ryanair are known for carrying less fuel that most. They will still carry enough but other airlines will put in the extra few bob more.

No way would they institutionalise bad safety practises. O’leary knows that this is the one thing that could kill off his budget airline. If he has a major incident – that would probably be the end.

This is why they have the newest fleet in Europe (the world?) – very low maintenance costs and very high reliability with a ton of warranty!

Maybe the thing to fear is that maintenance crew being under severe and unmitigated pressure to get an aircraft ready – and having to take the odd short cut maintenance job.

It has happened elsewhere before.

both ba and Air France had similar calls that day Joe , “Barely enough fuel to get to their destination” that’s just untrue really read up on it again, they reached their destination , held, diverted to land unscheduled airport (not exactly beside their original destenation) held at that airport and then landed with 30mins fuel left. Their the facts of the matter.

I’m sure its standard procedure when a number of incidents are recorded by an airline, since Ryanair are the second largest airline in Europe they’re bound to have more incidents than other airlines!

That’s not the point,they had enough fuel for their journey plus alternate and hold,your bringing some rubbish into it,lots of airlines have fuel bonuses,anything Ryanair do or have seems to make the ‘media’ quite easily yet anything positive doesn’t.

Joe, the aircraft in question landed with 30min remaining fuel on board, the issue on the day arose out of factors on the ground, other airlines also had similar issues around the same time. Different variables on a particular day can impact fuel consumption – weight and head winds, all airlines take these variables into account. Ryanair have one the newest aircraft fleets in Europe and one of the best safety records!

Joe
You sound like an Aer Lingus plant as the suggestion you are making is completely false and fraudulent. As much as I dislike Ryanair I have it on absolute authority that the fuel intake of planes complies totally with protocols and any suggestion to the contrary is competitive nastiness. In some respects it goes beyond being nasty because you’re playing with people’s natural fears and to do it with falsehood is disturbingly unpleasant.
Why don’t you tell us who you are and who your employer is so we know you’re not a plant?

Have to agree with Glass Half Full on this one. Efficiency drives are all very well but not much comfort when these cause difficulties for pilots at 30,000 feet. Technicalities aside, for the flying public the most important consideration is confidence in the airline. As long as safe landings equal takeoffs will always be top of the pile but personally, I will never fly Ryan Air again… Too many incidents, issues and plain atrocious service. This company can only shave margins so much before something has to give, and while safety is paramount, I just for not have confidence in Ryan Air.

they don’t break any aviation regulations so what’s your point?

What I don’t understand about the minimum necessary fuel rule that Ryanair has is this: so what if a pilot carries much more fuel than necessary? It’s going to be used on the return leg of the journey anyhow. If I fill my car petrol tank for a journey that only requires half a tank it simply means that I have purchased more fuel than is necessary for that particular journey but as I will be taking other journeys afterwards the expenditure on fuel is not going to go to waste. And as aircraft spend most of their time in the air burning fuel I fail to see where the economies are in minimising fuel for individual flights. Clearly there is a reason but I just can’t see it. Can someone explain?

Joe your talking tripe again about them being up sh1t creek,they carried a perfectly adequate amount a fuel,thunderstorms are beyond ryanairs control,all airlines will carry the correct amount of fuel for performance as you correctly point out.they are not the first airline to declare a fuel mayday and will not be the last

Ask the IALPA how they feel about it. They are quoted directly here.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0816/ryanair-spain.html

Hence why its being called into question by the Spanish..john

My bad Ciaran. I forget every airline thats had serious incidents in the past had been operating outside aviation regulation. Dont be naive.

@Mick What kind of dribble are you on about with plants and conspiracies. I work in plumbing ya donkey. Im a nervous flyer and dont like the “corporate culture” thats making the pilots uncomfortable! As per the rte interview…

Joe, you know what Mickey O’L would tell you. Don’t you?

Yeah i do Rory. The truth doesnt bode well with that dude.