As someone who flies to the London at least twice a month, I find Ryan air to be more expensive than BMI and AerLingus. The advertised fare is always less, but when you add their bizarre charges they are no longer a budget airline. The bad blood caused by hidden charges and punishment charges for check in and luggage weight etc make them the airline of last resort for many. Mick O can blame oil but I really believe he has gone to far with extra charges, so far in fact people are afraid of flying with them as they know they will be hit with a charge somewhere at the airport. They changed the airline business but really must become a bit more customer friendly to get the numbers back up.

Spare a thought for Michael O’Leary, Chief Executive of Ryanair’…….
Arriving in a hotel in Dublin, he went to the bar and asked for a pint of draught Guinness.
The barman nodded and said, “That will be one Euro please, Mr. O’Leary.”
Somewhat taken aback, O’Leary replied,
“That’s very cheap,” and handed over his money.
“Well, we try to stay ahead of the competition”, said the barman.
“And we are serving free pints every Wednesday evening from 6 until 8.
We have the cheapest beer in Ireland”
“That is remarkable value” Michael comments
“I see you don’t seem to have a glass, so you’ll probably need one of ours.
That will be 3 euro please.”
O’Leary scowled, but paid up.
He took his drink and walked towards a seat.
“Ah, you want to sit down?” said the barman.
“That’ll be an extra 2 euro. -
You could have pre-book the seat, and it would have only cost you a Euro.”
“I think you may to be too big for the seat sir, can I ask you to sit in this frame please”
Michael attempts to sit down but the frame is too small and when he can’t squeeze in
he complains “Nobody would fit in that little frame”.
“I’m afraid if you can’t fit in the frame you’ll have to pay an extra surcharge of €4.00 for your seat sir”
O’Leary swore to himself, but paid up.
“I see that you have brought your laptop with you” added the barman.
“And since that wasn’t pre-booked either, that will be another 3 euro.”
O’Leary was so annoyed that he walked back to the bar, slammed his drink on the counter, and yelled,
“This is ridiculous, I want to speak to the manager”.
“Ah, I see you want to use the counter,” says the barman, “that will be 2 euro please.” O’Leary’s face was red with rage.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Of course I do Mr. O’Leary,”
“I’ve had enough, What sort of Hotel is this? I come in for a quiet drink
and you treat me like this. I insist on speaking to a manager!”
“Here is his E mail address, or if you wish, you can contact him between 9 and 9.10 every morning, Monday to Tuesday at this free phone number.
Calls are free,until they are answered, then there is a talking charge of only 10 cent per second”
“I will never use this bar again”
“OK sir, but remember, we are the only hotel in Ireland selling pints for one Euro”.

It was cheaper for me to fly with BMI into Heathrow than it would of been to fly with Ryanair this NYE.

My first choice to Paris is always Aer Lingus & despite high fees at CDG they’ve been near enough to Ryanair prices to warrant avoiding Beauvais hell

I love a bargain but when it comes to travelling in connection with courtesy and attention to detail I will always choose Aer L….s. ( hope this covers you guys legally ).
I have flown with Michaels company on many occasions but felt like a sheep being shoved into a pen.

Bag charge steep that would be a big no no

Maybe the fact that it will cost €70 to check in a bag will push their passenger numbers even lower! Ryanair as a budget airline is dead.

Recession Michael – Hello

moving away from 2nd rate airports to compete against flag carriers at main airports such as Madrid and Lisbon means much higher costs. punters on low cost airlines are price sensitive during a recession and will only travel if cheap …. ryanairs cost base is rising rapidly . they bought to many planes which now have to be paid for while sitting on a tarmac doing nothing… Mr o Learys ego like most other Irish business people got the better of him during the Celtic tiger
.He now owns a hell of a lot of planes which be has no use for be also.has a 25% stake in EI which he paid 3 euro a share for which is now worth 50 cent . a new broom to sweep clean comes to mind
BYE BYE MICHAEL

You wouldn’t be able to fly anywhere cheaper than Ryanair only for the fact that Ryanair exist. Michael O’Leary revolutionised short hall air travel! Without him we’d be paying 10 times as much as we do because nobody would have cut back every cost to a complete minimum making flying a plane much more economical!

If Aerlingus’ traffic had dropped, he would be all over it like a rash. Ryanair are the carrier singularly responsible for most of the huge traffic drop at Dublin and Shannon. Other airlines are generally holding their own or slowly starting to grow again. I love Ryanair for lowering air fares, but O’leary’s self serving comments wrapped up as concern for Irish tourism sicken me.

Dublin to Riga February 10th on Lufthansa €179

on ScummyAir €167 plus €57 taxes, fees and charges

So long suckers… I’ll shoot you a wave from the senators lounge.

I have found Aerlingus cheper this year for spain ,and only had to pay once for useing my c/card for my wife and my self ,this guy has destroyed the aerlines brakes every rule in the book to much to put here ,
Look up spainish courts/ryanair see what thay have to say to him ,under spainish law you can take your hand case plus 1 duty free bag on board .yet he will not allow this ,

O’Leary should be running this country, if he was we would be profitable, one of the greatest business men we have ever produced

I never had any problems when using Ryanair and were always on time. If you all think Ryanair will loose business your deluded it’s the worlds most successful airline, and I’m sure they will be for many years to come.

Everybody else is always to blame but Ryanair. I despise the airline. Yes they forced Aer Lingus’ prices down, but also their standards. The chaos boarding Aer Lingus is shocking due to bulky hand luggage. I regularly fly City Jet to London and Swiss to Zurich. Aer Lingus at a push.