Ryanair blame cancellation on snow to save money

whatmichaelsays

budgetflyer wrote: »

What most businesses who's standby rotas are abnormally stretched would do is phone out any extra staff on days off etc. Many people are glad of the extra overtime.

Which is easy when you don't have a workforce that are subject to strict time restrictions on the number of hours that they can work. This is an airline we're taking about here, not a call centre.

richardw

Many businesses and organisations are able to operate standby employee systems within operational restrictions.

dzug1

richardw wrote: »

Many businesses and organisations are able to operate standby employee systems within operational restrictions.

Yes - but no system is 100% reliable in every conceivable circumstance. You seem to be taking the blinkered position that it should be and that it should never go wrong.

real1314

If the problem could have been prevented by a reasonable management action, it's the airlines problem.

Most travel was possible, given adequate notice. A flight coming back on a 3 hour trip, plus say 30 mins for turnaround gives 3.5 hours to get another crew.

If they've run out of crew, that's down to cost.

De-icer should be ordered and available for the late autumn / winter season.

Not getting it is down to cost (of storage/spoilage).

It's great to see people defending companies cancelling flights, then speculating on why a cost saving issue by the airline shoudl not lead to cancellation compensation being payable as specified by EU law.

Airlines choose how they spend their budget. If they get it wrong, they cannot just cancel at will and expect nothing to happen. That is exactly why the EU brought these regs in.

real1314

whatmichaelsays wrote: »

Which is easy when you don't have a workforce that are subject to strict time restrictions on the number of hours that they can work. This is an airline we're taking about here, not a call centre.

All EU workers have time restrictions on when they can work. Rostering failure is not an "extraordinary circumstane".

OP, see here:- http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-delays

This site is slowly turning into a place for people to jab at others at every possible occasion. Businesses should run their affairs within the law. When they fail to do so, they should expect to have to pay out. If the law says they also have to compensate, then they should. Whether it's a flight they failed to operate or food they sold in an unfit state.

richardw

dzug1 wrote: »

Yes - but no system is 100% reliable in every conceivable circumstance. You seem to be taking the blinkered position that it should be and that it should never go wrong.

It's not blinkered, there are highly reliable systems, some have been reliant on successful standby employee systems for a longtime and these standby systems are developed and tweaked over time with new tools and opportunities enabling systems to work better and much more efficiently. Some have experienced many circumstances and their systems are highly reliable because of the need to maintain service levels to succeed.

babyfruitella

Scots wrote: »

Of course I don't know that for a fact thats why I'm asking here.

The evidence I've presented is:

The plane landed empty ... ie it was sent for us
It taxied to the door and our luggage was loaded
we were told to board
The plane was refuelled
The snow scrapers had cleared the runway and the taxi way
the plane was about to be de iced ... they leave that till last minute
Other planes including ryanair flights had just taken off, landed and continued to do so after and long after .... logs are all available
I have video of other planes taking off landing boarding at same time.


So what was the problem ? 50 passengers only ?

I think you're cluthing at straws to be honest. If it was, as you suggest, a money saving excercise, surely they wouldnt have wasted the money on sending a plane specifically for you.:undecided

Scots

babyfruitella wrote: »

I think you're cluthing at straws to be honest. If it was, as you suggest, a money saving excercise, surely they wouldnt have wasted the money on sending a plane specifically for you.:undecided

Yes I agree with that, except to say that planes are used for various routes. So by not going it would mean the plane would be available later, probably in the morning to resume other routes.


Anyway I'm off to contact Ryanair, which in itself is not an easy thing to do. As far as I can see the only way is to fax them. Will need to dig out my old fax machine. Funny that how they make it so difficult.

chellex

Just because you're aircraft needed deicing doesn't mean the others all did, if these aircraft come in from an outstation and keep to a quick turnaround then most of the time they don't need deicing. It is annoying I know, last year I was delayed for 3 hours due to being in a huge queue for the deicer and it really annoyed me to see an aircraft pull on stand and then 30 minutes later push back to take off but its just the way it goes!
It does sound feesible running out of de icer. And also I'm guessing there is more than one ground handling company at the airport? One company may have lots of de icer but another company may only have limited amounts.

dzug1

richardw wrote: »

It's not blinkered, there are highly reliable systems, some have been reliant on successful standby employee systems for a longtime and these standby systems are developed and tweaked over time with new tools and opportunities enabling systems to work better and much more efficiently. Some have experienced many circumstances and their systems are highly reliable because of the need to maintain service levels to succeed.

Yes there are such systems, and I'm sure they get tweaked and get better all the time - but ultimately they will fail in extreme circumstances. It's logically impossible for them not to. It's just a matter of how extreme you have to get before they do.

Whether in this case Ryanair were 'at fault' or not - who knows. It's all speculative so far, and some of that speculation may be based on incomplete facts. Well all of it really.