Good evening,

As you may well know, Ryanair withdrew from Fuerteventura last January and the island has been devestated ever since. I am part of a group attempting to restore the Ryanair flights to Fuerteventura and as part of our campaign, we are trying to contact the local tourism councillor in Fuerteventura (Agueda Montelongo) and the Minister for Tourism for the Canary Islands (Rita Martin)

Does anybody know which political parties these people belong to and how we can contact them.

Thanks,

Dave (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))

Hi Dave…

I know how you feel buddy but RyanAir are cutting Flights across the board round EU… Heres Another Story For you…

Ryanair is to reduce its services from Stansted airport in a row with airport owner BAA, the company says.
Ryanair wants is refusing to pay higher landing charges
The budget airline said it was cutting its winter services by 40% from October.
Ryanair has been in dispute with BAA over landing charges.

The decision will mean that the company will operate 24 aircraft from the Essex airport,
reducing the number of passengers it carries by 2.5 million between October and March.

Ryanair says it is cutting flights as Stansted, along with Dublin, are its two most expensive bases.

We might take out the last five or six rows and say to passengers
‘Do you want to stand up? If you do you can travel for free’.”

The company is highly critical of moves by the UK to increase airport passenger duty from ?10 to ?11 despite falling numbers of passengers at BAA’s UK airports.

It said the Belgian, Dutch, Greek and Spanish governments had all scrapped tourist taxes and/or reduced airport charges to zero to stimulate tourism.

It said it would now switch the 16 aircraft it was withdrawing from Stansted to other European bases.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said:

“Ryanair’s 40% capacity cutback at London Stansted shows just how much Gordon Brown’s
?10 tourist tax and the BAA monopoly’s high airport charges are damaging London and UK tourism and
the British economy generally.”

Stansted managing director Stewart Wingate said: “Today’s announcement means
it is business as usual here at Stansted.

“Last winter Ryanair reduced its aircraft fleet here to 28. This year it will be 24.
It is common practice for it to reduce frequency to various destinations during the winter season as it has done in previous years.”

I am sure when this Crisis is over things will change?

dave from Ireland wont work as it down two news what happen last year with the island Tourist Board . all spain get flight cut this winter coming . due to report 11 Dec 2008 ... Ryanair cancelled nine routes to Fuerteventura on Wednesday, sending a warning to ... with the airline to promote Fuerteventura as a tourist destination. .... Board Members Managing Director. Competitive Salary Roddons . Ryanair Confirms Closure of Fuerteventura Routes from January ?09

Ryanair, Europe?s largest low fares airline, today (10th Dec) confirmed that it will close all of its routes to/from Fuerteventura from 31st January after local tourism group AIE failed to honor the commercial agreement it entered into with Ryanair to promote Fuerteventura as a tourist destination.
Since Ryanair began flying to Fuerteventura in 2006 annual passenger numbers have increased over one hundred fold from just 2,000 to over 250,000. However, because of the AIE?s breach of its agreement with Ryanair one of its Dublin flights to Fuerteventura was cancelled from 6th November and Ryanair has now confirmed the closure of 23 weekly services on nine international routes to/from Fuerteventura from 31st January. This follows extensive efforts by Ryanair to encourage the AIE to honor the agreement they had signed.

Ryanair will close all services to/from Fuerteventura including Birmingham (3 per week), Bremen (2pw), Dublin (2pw), Dusseldorf (Weeze) (4pw), East Midlands (3pw), Frankfurt (2pw), Liverpool (3pw), London (3pw) and Shannon (1pw) from 31st January.

Ryanair confirmed legal action, for breach of the agreement, will continue against AIE and its individual members.

Speaking today, Ryanair?s Michael Cawley, said:

?This is a very black day for Fuerteventura and one which will have a severe impact on tourism and the livelihoods of its islanders. Ryanair?s lowest fares and no fuel surcharge have delivered huge tourism revenues and over 250,000 annual passengers will now be lost to/from Fuerteventura. At a time when Spanish tourism numbers are falling Ryanair?s passenger traffic continues to grow as our fares continue to fall. However, the AIE has now taken a huge gamble with the livelihoods of the local tourism industry by blatantly reneging on its contractual commitments and losing Ryanair?s 23 weekly services to the island.

?Ryanair previously called on the AIE to comply with its contractual agreements and provided them with 30 days notice to remedy their contract breach, this notice period has now lapsed with no action having been taken to maintain Ryanair?s presence in Fuerteventura. Therefore, we are faced with no choice but to end all Ryanair flights to Fuerteventura from 31st January?.

time you get the poeple in hotel and Leisure to get action group up and running .

jurdy

Cllr Collins Hi;

I think you may be flogging the proverbial dead horse with this action…

It seems to be part of the deal with Ryanair that if you want their company to serve your airport then the airport /local authority must waive all landing and handling fees.

This is essentially what all of the lo-cost operators want but there is obviously a limit to what a local authority can support in the way of 100% subsidies; this is the main reason that Monarch pulled out of Granada/Jaen Airport.

Monarch argued that it was to do with load factors, but prior to withdrawing they were in long discussions with the Granada Chamber of Commerce and the Airport Authorities concerning subsidies. In the first stage of a two pronged attack they Monarch changed the flight times for the LGW-GRX service from a very convenient mid afternoon Gatwick departure to 0630 with a 0430 check-in time; essentially meaning that prospective customers had to either travel overnight to get to Gatwick or spend the previous night there…Then they proceeded to price themselves out of the market as the number of passengers fell due to this revised departure time. Thus they were able to drop the service and blame load factors…

Ryanair are in a on-going battle with their UK/Ireland based aircrew who want Union recognition through BALPA and/or IALPA and M.O’L has clearly stated that if UK/Irish based aircrew continue this battle be will simply pull the services from its UK and Ireland bases and transfer the aircrew to other European bases under vastly different Terms and Conditions of Employment. Part of this threat he has already undertaken with the cutback of services from Stansted and Shannon.

Ryanair already employs a high percentage of contract aircrew who can be hired and fired at a moments notice. They also permit a very high number of its flights to operate with First Officers who are barely qualified and who are, in effect paying for the priviledge of sitting in the right hand seat…BMI also do this…

Quite apart from the tendency of all lo-cost airlines to treat their passengers like cattle, increasingly we are getting to the stage where there will be a serious accident because of the pressure being applied to aircrew on these lo-cost flights. They have been extremely lucky so far, but the trend is there already…Ryan has had at least two incidents so far this year where their aircraft have gone off the runway on landing.

There are reports of Ryan’s aircrew abusing ATC Controllers especially European controllers, when they cannot get a straight in approach to Airports and are required to ‘Stack’ or ‘Hold’ for a while thereby requiring the crew to use more fuel and cut down on the turn-round time.

M.O’L is slowly but surely shooting himself in the foot, but all the time that passengers insist on Lo-cost flights, he and others of his ilk will continue to exploit them, the aircrew, the cabin crew and equally importantly the engineers.

fb

have you see the price two get out off Ireland ? airport chagers are 20 euros taxes 15 euros yes its going up and then add taxes and airpot chages coming back ticket is about 60 euro befor you hand pen two the airlines .......

My take on this is that Ryanair are trying too get the company taken over, if not soon, then they failed previously.

The boss is an accountant, which basically means he`s only interested in the profit/loss account’s of the company and will sell as soon as its profits are high enough.

Customer pressure etc isn`t a concern.

Ryanair plans to copy the Chinese and sell a percentage of space on each plane as standing room, you can charge less and gain more passengers per meter than if they sat down.

The guy could be a clever businessman, his downfall is the fact he is Irish and with that comes he`s attitude.

My gut feeling is Ryanair`s boss has over estimated the time he intended to have the company and the current crisis.

Its either holding out for a take over or will soon go bust.

Santi…You are probably right but…

Just to add to my previous reply;

Regarding pressures on aircrew; it can be seen at it’s absolute worse in the case of the Spanair accident at Madrid.

Untold pressures were being applied to the flight crew and the ground crew to fix a snag that wasn’t really a snag at all.

The engineers looked for the quick fix and applied it, conscious of the fact that they had an aircraft full of overheated Spaniards sitting in an ally tube at 40C with no aircon…

The aircrew were under enormous pressure to get the aircraft on its way so as not to further delay it’s return flight from GC.

ATC found a new ‘slot’ for the flight which was accepted by the aircrew.

All of these added up to one simple error in the pre flight checks; In applying the quick fix the engineers missed the reason why the snag had occurred and fixed the reported snag rather than the underlying cause. This underlying cause (a relay in the wrong state) ledto a pre-flight config alarm NOT sounding when the aircraft started it’s take off roll with the flaps and slats NOT deployed for take-off.

The fact that the alarm did not sound led the crew into missing this all important check. Ultimately the aircrew followed the pre-planned take off speeds and at 150 knots attempted to take off whilst still 25 knots short of the actual required speed for a flapless/slatless take off. The aircraft struggled into the air and then stalled leading to the tragedy that we all saw the results of on TV.

So who is to blame? These days any tragedy requires someone to be blamed…
Was it the Aircrew…? YES
Was it the Groundcrew…? YES
Was it Flight Ops…? YES
Was it Spanairs Management…? YES
Was it the Aircraft Designers…? YES

Could it happen again…most definitely YES… this or something similar…

Flying is still the safest form of transport known to man but with people like M.O’L consistently pushing the boundaries its only a matter of time…

fb

foxbat - 22 July 2009 03:07 PM

Could it happen again…most definitely YES… this or something similar…

Human error will always be possible, but you factor in systems and procedure’s to ensure that whilst one human makes an error another human or system will spot that error.

Flying is still the safest form of transport known to man but with people like M.O’L consistently pushing the boundaries its only a matter of time…

fb

I believe it is wrong to blame one person for an error such as the Madrid accident, that one was a cluster of errors by people who should have followed the procedures at all costs. Whilst international avaiation around the world should follow all the same rules and guidelines, they don`t implement strict controls to prevent those being ignored.

Fuel is a big issue with many budget airlines, the days when the pilot would factor the amount of fuel needed plus 20% plus nearest airport have gone, many are pressured to lose the 20% and run with nearest airport from destination.

That results in either the plane landing in conditions they normally don`t, run through bad weather they`d normally avoid, as in the southern hemisphere and the French jet crash or they divert straight to the nearest airport from destination.

Its rare to be sat on a budget airline and be held in a loop waiting for the weather to clear.

I no I rant on about the Spanish.

But.

I worked in Spain for an engineering company that in the UK is highly pressured into following safety guideline’s to prevent joe public being killed.

Those same EU regulations are implemented in Spain in the same manner that Captain Barbosa follows in the Pirates of the Caribean films. There not rules more guideline’s.

The Spanish situation ment that all the parties involved were more interested in ignoring these rules, in the UK if procedures are not followed the maintenance crews, who cannot be pressured by the airlines, can ground an aircraft within minutes if they believe there being manipulated or pressured to bypass safety regulations.

UK aircraft are constantly being delayed for trivial matters that if ignored would break rules, i knew of one situation that a lens was found cracked on the undercarriage unit, this had to be ordered from the UK and flown out to Spain before the plane could get certified as safe to travel, that took 6 hours in delay time. The plane wasn`t due to fly at night or in bad conditions, it wouldn`t have affected the planes performance in anyway, the plane can technically land without lights at night, but the rules state any damage must be rectified.

In Spain these get ignored and procedures for maintenance staff to complain are very slack and crews are pressurised to get the flight out. That comes from all sides.

Spain although has hundreds of thousands of flights, still holds the record for the worse loss of death in any plane accidents in the world.

Santi;
I agree 100% with all that you say.

Having spent the last 35 years in the aviation business a hangar engineer and a line engineer, I am only too aware of the situation.
At the time of the Spanair accident the company was all but bankrupt, the 1st Officer on the flight was serving out his Redundancy notice and the company generally was in dire straits.

The tragedy is that the Engineers involved in this case are the ones being prosecuted and this is a sad reflection of the situation pertaining throughout the industry not only in Spain but worldwide. The Engineers are always seen as the line of least resistance and easily replaced…

Getting back to M.O’L and Ryanair, I wouldn’t set foot on one of his aircraft nor would I allow any of my family to do so. He cuts just too many corners in his pursuit of profit.

I tend to be fatalistic in my attitude to life and death; I firmly believe that when your time is up, your time is up; I just don’t want to be a passenger on Cheapskate Airlines when the other 150 passenger’s time is also up…

fb

foxbat - 22 July 2009 07:47 PM

Getting back to M.O’L and Ryanair, I wouldn’t set foot on one of his aircraft nor would I allow any of my family to do so. He cuts just too many corners in his pursuit of profit.
fb

I would not step foot in the idiots planes’s full STOP!!!!!!!!! He wants to put bar stools in the plane for god sake… My friends in Airbus told me that BOEING SAID NO!!! there were not going to do it or put there name on it…

The man is a muppet and making loss this his way by cutting routes etc to cut costs!

And the costs will be one day “LIVES”

Mac;
Totally agree!
fb

He`s one of lifes clever idiots.

He bought taxi plates and registered his Merc as a taxi so he could use the bus lanes around the cities so as not to waste time in traffic.

That is a sign of a clever idiot.

My OH used Ryanair, once, she got fed up of the constant sales pitches on the flight.

She will never use them again, I`d love too though, i could have sooo much fun, being the irritating passenger.

In my opinion he was attempting to do the same as GO airlines did and have Easyjet or BA take him over.

I guess Ireland, sorry Jurdyr, will struggle to produce a Branson or Dyson brand for some years yet.

Santi no problem but will say that the airline industry is now cheap to travel , down to low cost airlines , when BA where take few hunders ponds for trip to Paris from LHR and now get from 20 pounds .... and with that the airlines where still making loss aswel back in them hight prices , Ryanair is modeled Usa carry Southwest Airlines . so what he up two has been done in the Usa .  Stand up in plane , where the Irish bar on bord ?
Yes the cost off traveling is down , and that what dose matter .... and new rotes have been open where wont befor yes i do trvel with then are i would take me all day to do my travel to ireland from spain are outher way around .  biggest job is the taxes you have to pay getting in out countrys , i thought we where the EU zone

Airport then ripping us off two , price are going up not down at the airports ... are going back to the days when you have to rich to travel again

Jurdy

About six months ago, I was looking at the cheapest way to get from Granada to London via Madrid and went onto the BA website.

The cheapest through booking quoted by BA at the time was ?710 one way…

I then split the booking into its two segments, Iberia Granada-Madrid and BA/Iberia Madrid-Heathrow, using the same flights on the same day…the result caught even me, the eternal cynic, by surprise; Iberia Granada -Madrid ?70 return and BA/Iberia Madrid-Heathrow ?130 return…
?200 total return or ?710 single.

Again I stress that these were on the same outbound flights. The only difference was that would have had to collect my baggage at Madrid and then check it in again; that kind of scheme that saves me ?510 and gives me a return flight, I can live with especially with a 3 hour layover at Madrid…

fb

Hi I do not want to piss on everyones chips… However 😊

The airlines have got more expensive competition, is drying up examples Clickair and Vueling tie up also BA buying Iberia shortly
Spanair going to wall as its going on Strike etc Ryanair Reducing flights…...
Medgers buy outs etc AND THIS CRISIS!!! Imagine After crisis!

So what does this mean…. Well it means were going back to the old days… (Blimey I sound old there I AM 32!!!)

Were Flying or a Holiday was a luxury….. and this is were its going to go again I think for the next 18mths minimum before it all starts back up again….. As all the buy outs etc has decreased Competition so yeah FB me and everyone else will notice that flights have gone up were Barcelona to Malaga was ?35 1 way now is nearly double…. And La Coruna to Malaga is over ?150 euros each way…..

Correct me if i am wrong with my reasons etc…

Mac

I remember the days when a return flight to Bilbao with BA was ?299.00, it included wine and a hot meal,  never delayed.

Then GO came followed by Easyjet and low prices.

Then Budget airlines arrived.

Now there goin to get expensive.