Ryanair: Is it really Europe's most punctual airline?

NFH

BBC News article today: Ryanair: Is it really Europe's most punctual airline?

The conclusion is that it probably is not.

Nevertheless according to page 21 of this report , Ryanair does use some worrying tactics to arrive "on time". Calling a mayday for insufficient fuel allows it to jump the queue to land.

Bob_the_Saver

NFH wrote: »

Ryanair does use some worrying tactics to arrive "on time". Calling a mayday for insufficient fuel allows it to jump the queue to land.

To boost their figures .00001% - don't think so

jpsartre

NFH wrote: »

Nevertheless according to page 21 of this report , Ryanair does use some worrying tactics to arrive "on time". Calling a mayday for insufficient fuel allows it to jump the queue to land.

Is that before or after the report argues that O'Leary is a lizard person?

marksteer

Having flown Ryanair many times I would agree that their flights very often arrive "on Time" but they fudge their timetables to allow extra time so that flights arrive "on time". This is well known in the Aviation Industry.

NFH

marksteer wrote: »

Having flown Ryanair many times I would agree that their flights very often arrive "on Time" but they fudge their timetables to allow extra time so that flights arrive "on time". This is well known in the Aviation Industry.

All airlines do this, and in the above article it even says "On the eight routes we were able to identify where Ryanair has rivals, it gave the same or shorter flight times in seven out of eight cases". Ryanair is no worse than its competition in this respect.

However what I do have a problem with is allowing flights that are up to 15 minutes late to be classed as "on time". This is absurd; it's either on time or it's not. I know this discrepancy is down to the CAA, not Ryanair, and train companies do the same, but it doesn't justify the practice.

callum9999

NFH wrote: »

All airlines do this, and in the above article it even says "On the eight routes we were able to identify where Ryanair has rivals, it gave the same or shorter flight times in seven out of eight cases". Ryanair is no worse than its competition in this respect.

However what I do have a problem with is allowing flights that are up to 15 minutes late to be classed as "on time". This is absurd; it's either on time or it's not. I know this discrepancy is down to the CAA, not Ryanair, and train companies do the same, but it doesn't justify the practice.

Though as all airlines use the 15 minutes rule (to the best of my knowledge anyway) - how exactly does that matter to whether Ryanair are the most punctual or not? Not that I see how it's so "absurd" - 15 minutes really isn't very long...

What exactly is your ridiculous obsession with whinging about Ryanair anyway? Your stupid claim that they under-fuel planes to jump the queues says all anyone needs to know about your objectivity on the matter.

NFH

callum9999 wrote: »

Though as all airlines use the 15 minutes rule (to the best of my knowledge anyway) - how exactly does that matter to whether Ryanair are the most punctual or not? Not that I see how it's so "absurd" - 15 minutes really isn't very long...

If it arrives later than the scheduled arrival time, then it is late. Why allow a tolerance of 15 minutes? If it's late, it's late.

callum9999 wrote: »

Your stupid claim that they under-fuel planes to jump the queues says all anyone needs to know about your objectivity on the matter.

It's not my claim. I provided a link to a detailed report in which this was mentioned.

Ich_2

It's not my claim. I provided a link to a detailed report in which this was mentioned.

An unofficial report by a commercial organisation that has no statutory status in the aviation industry.
The IAA (the Eire regulator) has in a report published earlier this year categorically stated that Ryanair do not under-fuel aircraft. Bear in mind that every time an aircraft issues a mayday it is investigated by the authorities, if they were doing as suggested they would have probably been prosecuted by now.
http://www.ryanair.com/doc/news/2012/iaa_report_valencia_EN.pdf

This page makes interesting reading as well

http://www.air-scoop.com/

callum9999

NFH wrote: »

If it arrives later than the scheduled arrival time, then it is late. Why allow a tolerance of 15 minutes? If it's late, it's late.


It's not my claim. I provided a link to a detailed report in which this was mentioned.

Presumably because a delay of 15 minutes is meaningless to the vast majority of people so it makes the stats more useful? What if an airline had 50% of it's flights 1 minute late? They'd have a punctuality rating of 50% but I, and presumably most people, would view it as pretty much 100% in my head.

Fine. A stupid claim that you repeated, implying you believe it's true. Good enough? And if the authors of that report think it's a valid claim, then it just takes away any credibility they may have had in the rest of the report as well. Any idiot with 2 brain cells can see that it isn't a deliberate policy to jump the queues.

Ich_2

A big proportion of their network in Europe is operations to small airports that don't suffer from air traffic congestion, as would be the case around London and Paris," he says. This makes it easier to avoid delays. He adds that Ryanair flies to airports where the facilities are relatively close to the runway, so the plane doesn't spend several minutes taxiing, as it would often have to at airports such as Schiphol in Amsterdam.

The second paragraph amused me, as the arrival time used is the landing time, not the arrival at the gate time. Not sure what the guy (or the reporter) was trying to say.

callum9999

Ich wrote: »

The second paragraph amused me, as the arrival time used is the landing time, not the arrival at the gate time. Not sure what the guy (or the reporter) was trying to say.

Are you sure? I thought arrival time was time at the gate - which would make more sense considering no-one cares what time the plane touches down, they care what time they can get off it! Departure time is also when it leaves the gate not when it takes off (though I guess unlike with arrival, the airlines couldn't really get away with using take off as departure time!).

Not that the passage makes much sense either way. If the arrival time is to the gate then the few minutes taxiing will be built into the flight time.