RYANAIR 'STUFF'!!

RYANAIR’S CASE against AENA Alicante’s forced use of air bridges goes to the Alicante Court of Appeal next Tuesday. Due to the impending hearing, RTN was invited to attend a press conference with Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary to get his take on the situation which, if the court rules against the company, will see the withdrawal of 300 flights and the loss of 1.5 million passengers and 1,500 jobs.

The airline chief told RTN: “If the court backs our appeal, we will reverse the decision immediately and by the end of February all those flights will be back on sale on the website for the summer months.” He added: “We don’t spend money on expensive PR and marketing as we like to keep our costs low and our flights cheap, but when we need to make a noise, we will do and that is what we are doing here today.”

BLACKMAIL
Currently Ryanair has eleven bases in Spain and fly to 22 airports with more than 500 routes carrying 34 million passengers. They are expecting delivery of eleven new planes direct from Boeing later this year and O’Leary stated that he plans to capitalise on the recent bankruptcy of Spanair by using some of those new aircraft on the lucrative Barcelona – Alicante route. But only if the air bridge decision is overturned.

When RTN asked what he thought to the allegations that he was ‘blackmailing’ the airport company into submission by his claims he said: “How can you blackmail a state run organisation like AENA? These are not heavy handed tactics because you just cannot do that to AENA. The truth of the matter is they don’t give a s**t about this. All they care about is getting the money back on that great big cathedral of an airport terminal that was built to please some politician.”

CHAOS
Whatever the arguments are, one thing is certain and that is unless the decision is reversed on Tuesday, these cuts to routes, passengers and jobs will happen. O’Leary explained: “If we have to use the air bridges, passengers can only leave from the front of the plane and therefore our 25 minute turnaround cannot happen. And as we have to adhere to strict air traffic slots, even a five minute delay could mean a delay of up to an hour which will throw our whole operation into chaos.”

The airport company has offered to allow Ryanair to disembark by foot during the winter but not during the busier summer due to health and safety. Mr O’Leary commented: “How can it be okay to do that in the winter but not in the summer? It makes no sense.” AENA then offered them buses, which would cost more than they are charging for air bridges. The airline boss said: “That proposal took us about two seconds to analyse and say no to. It was a stupid proposal in a long line of stupid proposals.” He concluded: “We don’t need any more daft suggestions by AENA, we just need the right solution.”

And so does the Costa Blanca.

Source: RoundTownNews