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

Ich_2

Are you sure? I thought arrival time was time at the gate

Apologies, I've further checked and find it is handbrake off to handbrake on. But as you say it should be built into the schedule anyway.

(though why Ryanair play that tune upon landing I don't know)

Bob_the_Saver

Ich wrote: »

(though why Ryanair play that tune upon landing I don't know)

To 'wake up' the passengers pretending to be asleep to avoid the scratchcards.

Dogger69

Ich wrote: »

(though why Ryanair play that tune upon landing I don't know)

I love that tune - almost like a 'welcome home'?

* Wonders if I could get it as a ring tone *

NFH

callum9999 wrote: »

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 is 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.

If it misses the deadline, then it's late. The cut-off point should be the published time, not an irrelevant time that is 15 minutes later.

If I buy a pay-and-display ticket and return to my car five minutes after the expiry time, then I'll receive a parking ticket. If there's no leeway with parking, why should there be any with flight arrivals?

Ich_2

To 'wake up' the passengers pretending to be asleep to avoid the scratchcards.

I was once told by one of their pursers the number of announcements they are "required" to make, for a short 1 hour flight, it took, if I recall, 26 minutes of the flight! Though she had found a way of avoiding playing the "on-time" tune

Dogger69

NFH wrote: »

If it misses the deadline, then it's late. The cut-off point should be the published time, not an irrelevant time that is 15 minutes later.

If I buy a pay-and-display ticket and return to my car five minutes after the expiry time, then I'll receive a parking ticket. If there's no leeway with parking, why should there be any with flight arrivals?

Given that all airlines use the same criteria, does it really matter?

Bob_the_Saver

Dogger69 wrote: »

I love that tune - almost like a 'welcome home'?

* Wonders if I could get it as a ring tone *

I asked exactly the same question not long ago and got several links. A search should find it.

Bob_the_Saver

I gather some people 'borrow it' from here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k23slUchH9o

or

http://freemp3x.com/play.php?yti=YQmQi7USQ3o

Doshwaster

NFH wrote: »

If it misses the deadline, then it's late. The cut-off point should be the published time, not an irrelevant time that is 15 minutes later.

In which case all that would happen (as it does) is that airlines would add additional time to their schedules to pad it out. By doing that almost every flight will magically be early.

There's a big difference between a flight being 5 minutes late (often due to air traffic control and other factors that that airline has no power over) one being 40 mins overdue.

zenmaster

In my experience Ryanair are too efficient.

We once arrived at Madrid an hour early, which was good going. Unfortunately I'd booked a cab for transfer to the hotel. When I rang them with the good news they were unable to change the pickup so we spent an unproductive hour sat in arrivals.

On another occasion we were informed of a 4 hour delay at Edinburgh. The reason for the delay was fully explained and I was even given a special pass to allow me to flit back and forth through security to go for a smoke if I wished.

Edinburgh has a Wetherspoons airside (which should be compulsory IMHO) so we ordered a meal which arrived some 15-20 minutes later. I'd not taken one mouthful before we were called for boarding.

These were both on a 1p flight.

Sadly those halcyon day are gone, due mostly to idiots whining that they are entitled to Lobster Thermidore because their flight was held up due to volcanic ash, had to pay a subsidy because they tried to board with 30kg of hand luggage or were charged a fiver because they hadn't got the nous to pay with the right card.