Dear Stephen,
Thank you very much for your and Michael O’Leary’s recent correspondence.
We should like to check with you some points of fact, if we may, and also to ask for your
comments, if any, on various points which, we anticipate, will be made in the programme,
which is now scheduled for transmission on Monday week, October 12
1. The on-line check-in charge: when was this initiated, please, and what was the
original charge?
2. The £40 fee for failing to print off and bring with one’s boarding pass: please could
you tell us how this figure is arrived at?
3. The £5 card handling charge. What was this at when it was originally introduced?
4. Why do you charge separate card handling fees for simultaneous purchases of tickets
by one person on behalf of a number, e.g. for their family, whereas Ryanair is only
charged itself (e.g. by the bank) once for processing all these payments?
5. FYI: We will report that, as you say, Ryanair are clear that there are no “hidden
charges.”
6. We have spoken to a website usability specialist who points out some pitfalls within
it: in particular, why is the option “no travel insurance required” between Latvia and
Lithuania on the drop-down “country of origin” menu? Why is there no “Do you
require travel insurance, yes/no?” box at this point?
7. What is the average level of fares being charged this year and the previous year?
8. How do you work out how to allocate fares at different levels for the same flight?
9. What market do you have in mind for the “Free” seats which you regularly offer?
10. Is there an “ideal” Ryanair customer?
11. Cabin staff: We have spoken to a number of cabin crew, including one, on the record;
we understand that around 50% of cabin staff work on an agency basis for Ryanair. Is
this correct; if not what is the correct figure?
12. Please can you confirm how much a cabin crew member has to pay to train; and what
if any guarantees are they given about future employment and contract lengths with
the company afterwards?
13. We understand that they are required to pay for their own uniform out of their own
funds. What does it cost?
14. Pilots. Similarly we have spoken to a number, and one on the record. We understand
that 45 minutes is allocated each day to flight preparation, which means that pilots
frequently have to do part of this work in their own time, as 45 minutes is often
insufficient. Can you confirm and comment on this?
15. Similarly we understand that around 50% of pilots are employed on an agency basis;
is this correct, please, and if not what is the correct figure?
16. A staff member says to us: “the company is, it will threaten to pull business and move
business around as it sees fit and it will threaten your job when it sees fit.” Have you
any comment, on this general assessment of the company?
17. Planes. We confirm that we clearly understand that Ryanair and Airbus did not reach
an agreement to purchase aircraft in 2002, although we will report that they came
close, in commercial negotiations. Airbus make no criticism of Ryanair.
18. FYI we will report that Ryanair are nimble in their choice of airports, and we have
spoken on the record to Olle Sundin of Lfv, about Ryanair leaving Malmo airport,
after the parties failed to reach agreement on terms for staying. He makes no criticism
of Ryanair.
19. We will report in general terms during the programme, repeatedly, not necessarily in
these words, that Ryanair drives hard bargains with those it deals with, just as was put
to Michael O’Leary when we met in Dublin last week, and which he agreed was the
case.
20. Consumer loyalty. It has been suggested to us that the nature of the complaints that
are made against Ryanair has changed from those which essentially underline the
company’s own business model- (e.g. customers not familiar with the low-cost
model and complaining that were not offered, free, services which it never proposed
to offer) – to complaints that are now being made from customers who feel that they
are not being dealt with entirely fairly, e.g. “fines” if they get things wrong, and that
these sorts of complaints threaten to undermine trust in the company. Have you any
comment to make about this?
21. It is suggested to us that if the company should initiate a new transatlantic business
with both premium and low-cost passengers this will be difficult to run in
combination with the existing and very well known European low-cost model, and
therefore presents a potential commercial difficulty. Have you any comment to make?
I repeat that we intend that the programme will be a fair and balanced representation of the
company, and will reflect its importance and success. We may need raise with you other
points which arise between now and transmission, which (as I have said is now scheduled for
October 12
Thank you,
Yours sincerely,
Vivian White.
Reporter, Panorama.
Mr Vivian White
Reporter
Panorama
5
Dear Vivian,
Thanks for your letter 2
reply.
1. The on-line check-in charge was introduced on 20
announced the closure of airport check-in desks. This charge only applies to
passengers on our non promotional fares – which is currently less than 50% of our
passengers – and represents a substantial saving over the previous £10 airport
check-in fee.
2. The £40 penalty was designed to ensure that everybody would comply with their
agreement at the time of booking that they would web check-in and bring the
boarding pass to the airport.
3. The £5 handling charge was introduced in 2003, when Ryanair launched its
partnership with Visa Electron to promote the use of Visa Electron cards which
enables passengers to make free payments on Ryanair.com. More than 20 million
passengers annually now use Visa Electron.
4. We charge a handling fee for each passenger segment. This is the way we sell our
seats, price our fares, and this is the way we charge for all our fees.
5. Not alone are there no “hidden” charges on Ryanair, but all charges are agreed to
by passengers before they are allowed to make a booking on Ryanair.
6. I am not sure I understand this point, but since travel insurance is now declined by
more than 96% of passengers (i.e. less than 4% of passengers opt to buy it), it
seems clear that the travelling public (unlike your so called expert) have no
difficulty with our website usability.
7. This is publicly available information in our results, where we have guided that
average fares this year will be 20% lower than last year, falling from just £36 to
£29 this year.
8. We don’t “allocate” fares at different levels to the same flight as you suggest. The
cheapest seats are sold on a first come, first served basis and its only as each
percentage class of cheap seats is filled, that passengers move on to the next
highest fare. What we manage is our load factors, not our fares.
9. Is this a trick question? The “market” we have in mind for free seats is any
consumer in Europe who wants a free seat. Is this not blindingly obvious?
10. Yes. Any human being with a brain, a pulse and a credit card, who doesn’t want
to be ripped off with BA or Easyjet’s high fares and frequently delayed flights.
11. Yes. There is an approx 50/50 split between direct employees and agency staff in
cabin crew.
12. No Ryanair cabin crew member has to pay for training which they receive on an
annual basis entirely free of charge. People who wish to be trained as pilots or
cabin crew pay for their own training themselves and then apply to work for
Ryanair when they have qualified. I presume you paid for your journalism degree
and not the BBC. Nobody receives any guarantees about future employment from
Ryanair unless or until they are offered employment by Ryanair once they are
appropriately qualified as pilots or cabin crew.
13. Cabin crew are required to pay £300 for their uniform during their first year
working for the company. This is reimbursed to them after 12 months, when they
receive an annual uniform allowance of £250 This is designed to encourage cabin
crew to stay with us for at least 12 months and means we don’t waste money on
giving uniforms out to people who decide after a week, a month, or 3 months that
they don’t like flying and quit.
14. Complete rubbish. 45 minutes is more than sufficient for 2 pilots (Captain and
First Officer) to complete flight preparations for their flights. Remember these
people are flying on the same aircraft every day, on routes they know very well,
where the only variable will be weather and passenger loads. We would be happy
to show you what’s involved in such flight preparation which can easily be
completed within 15 minutes. This is an example of Panorama clearly straying
into industrial relations, rather than focusing on facts.
15. Yes the 50/50 split of direct employees and agency is correct.
16. Rubbish. As a company which is creating up to 1,000 new jobs each year, we
don’t respond to false and subjective claims which are clearly motivated by an
industrial relations agenda, rather than fact. No employee can be “threatened”.
Any employee that is so threatened has the full panoply of legal rights and
considerable employment protection law to defend them.
17. Noted.
18. Noted.
19. Ryanair guarantees the lowest air fares in every route we operate. Since we
deliver the largest passenger volumes, like other large organisations including
Ikea, Tesco or McDonalds, we expect to obtain the best prices from all suppliers
we deal with on behalf of our consumers.
20. Consumer loyalty is clearly demonstrated by our continuing rapid traffic growth.
66m passengers this year prove our consumer loyalty. Ryanair receives far fewer
customer complaints than any other airline. Fines only arise when passengers fail
to honour our policies and procedures which they agree to on the internet before
they are allowed to make a booking on Ryanair.
21. Ryanair has repeatedly confirmed that it will not enter a transatlantic business
model.
Finally, if Panorama intended this programme to be a fair and balanced representation
of Ryanair, you would have agreed to a live or uncut pre-recorded interview with
Michael O’Leary, something we have repeatedly offered, but you have repeatedly
refused. Even the above questions demonstrate that this programme is neither fair,
nor balanced, relying as it does on a series of subjective and factually inaccurate
claims from a tiny number of disgruntled employees, suppliers and/or customers.
Panorama cannot detract from Ryanair’s astonishing growth, and extraordinary
popularity with the travelling public of Europe, which this year will see Ryanair –
during one of the worst downturns in airline history – grow by another 8 million plus
passengers annually from 58m last year to over 66m this year. This at a time when
other self professed “service” airlines like British Airways, Air France and Lufthansa
are suffering passenger declines as their customers switch to Ryanair.
Yours sincerely
Stephen McNamara
Head of Communications
