Passengers urge boycott of Ryanair after woman is ejected from flight

Ryanair is facing calls for a boycott in Spain after a YouTube video showing a passenger being forcibly ejected from an aircraft went viral.

The video, which has been viewed more than 100,000 times, shows the woman remonstrating with security guards before being escorted from the plane at Valencia airport.

Fellow passengers claim she was not allowed to travel because she had broken Ryanair's strict hand-luggage rules that restrict passengers to only one item of hand-luggage. They said she was carrying a book and a scroll which wouldn't fit into her case and she was removed from the plane even though others had pleaded to be allowed to put the items in their own bags.

However, Ryanair has insisted she was removed from pushing past gate staff without showing any form of ID, breaching airline security regulations.

The incident caused a storm of protests on Twitter in Spain, with passengers urging others not to travel on Ryanair. Spain's consumer ombudsman is already investigating Ryanair after receiving more than 1,000 complaints about the airline this year.

Air safety authorities are also investigating the airline after a string of diversions and emergency landings in Spain earlier this year. Ryanair insists its planes are safe and that it complies with all EU safety procedures.

Ryanair restricts passengers to one piece of hand-luggage weighing a maximum of 10kgs, which is more generous than other low-cost airlines, but its charges for check-in baggage are among the highest in the industry.

Friday, November 2, 2012

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You have to smile

People still don't get Ryanair, after all these years. Sob stories like this are part of their publicity strategy. They are a brilliant company, because they make people play by their rules. And the reward for doing so is to travel for less money than any alternative. So all the doomsayers who have been forecasting their demise since they invented their business model will have to carry on gnashing their teeth.

By Jon Cockerill, Monday, November 5, 2012
just a matter of time!

Ryanair's problems I fear are only just beginning. You cannot tread on people for very long before they hit back, even when supposedly cheap fares are the primary reason to book with them in the first place. Many a business has folded because they either lost consumer confidence or became 'unfashionable' to use. I've said before that Mr O'Leary, being an astute businessman, will possibly begin to disassociate himself from the product he has developed, which shows the first signs of turning septic. What next for him? There could be scope in Carpets or Self Assembly Furniture perhaps?

By derek small, Friday, November 2, 2012
Good point

Very interesting, Roger, it's an amazing phenomenon that so many use their service and yet they, as an airline, treat people so badly. I cannot comment on this case but we've been Ryanaired many a time. However, what I would say is they fly everywhere - ok never to where you think you are going - but no other airline apart from Easyjet has the routes. And for us East Anglians Ryanair is our 'local' airline. Easyjet's moved a lot of flight to Gatwick really.

By William Thompson, Friday, November 2, 2012
With so many complaints

I wonder how many complaints it takes to have an effect on an airline. The public image of Ryanair seems bad, yet the airline flourishes. Interesting! I realize that "market forces" are hardly existent in many service areas of the European Restricted Economy. Still, it's rather interesting that Ryanair manages to attract the numbers of passengers it does, despite many instances of bad publicity. Is it that consumers are desperate to fly, come what may!? Or is Ryanair in fact a model of delight?

By Roger Ellman, Friday, November 2, 2012