Ryanair soars high in list of unhappy flyers

RYANAIR has the ignoble distinction of being the second most complained about airline by a consumer watchdog body.

After British Airways, the no-frills airline attracted the most complaints received by Britain's consumer watchdog for the airline industry.

The London-based Air Transport Users Council received 257 complaints about British Airways and its subsidiary airlines, while Ryanair, with 201 complaints, was the next most-moaned about carrier.

In third position was KLM and its subsidiaries.

Ryanair, the second-largest air carrier of passengers to and from Britain, shrugged off the council's findings.

The airline's communications chief, Paul Fitzsimmons, said the complaints received represented one complaint for every 80,000 passengers carried, or just over one complaint every two days.

"Clearly, these numbers are unrepresentative and not significant," he said.

Altogether, the council received 1,675 written complaints in the 12 months to March of this year up 44% on the previous 12 months.

It also received a total of 3,657 telephone complaints, up slightly on the 3,453 made over the previous 12-month period.

Of the 20 airlines against which the most complaints were made, only one Air 2000 had fewer complaints than in 2001-'02.

A breakdown of the written complaints put mishandled baggage at the top of the list with 388 complaints compared with 177 over the previous 12-month period.

Delays and cancellations of flight were next with 210 complaints, although this represents a slight drop from the 216 received in 2001-'02.

The litany of telephone complaints tell a similar story with mishandled baggage accounting for over 20% of complaints.

Ticketing was the next biggest phone moan, although complaints in this category fell from 513 in 2001-'02 to 452 in 2002-'03.

About half of the mishandled baggage complaints were about bags that turned up eventually after travelling on a different flight from that of the passenger.

Meanwhile, Ryanair has rounded on a fledgling online travel firm after being accused of anti-competitive practices by preventing it from accessing its website.

Openjet.com, based in Penrose Wharf in Cork, looks to secure the best deals for its customers by comparing budget airline prices on the internet.

Ryanair said that consumers did not need websites charging fees for information that was already free on their website. "Ryanair will continue to oppose expensive middlemen like travel agents and Openjet," the airline declared yesterday.

Openjet managing director Pat O'Shea accused Ryanair of stifling competition by not allowing consumers to directly compare their prices with other low fare operators in Europe and choose the best flight or combination of flights.

"It is ironic that Ryanair last week requested a copy of our software to enable the airline to compare the prices offered by other low fares airlines while stopping consumers from doing the same," he added.

Despite the action taken by Ryanair, Mr O'Shea remains confident that Openjet, which has two full-time employees and five full-time contractors, will be able to continue to grow its markets in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Scandinavia.

Unfortunately, he said, the same could not be said about its home market that had become smaller as a result of Ryanair's action.