Who benefits from seeing Ryanair nosedive?

You cannot make scrambled egg without breaking an egg or two. Likewise you cannot grow and operate one of the most successful airlines in the world, using a business model that is anathema to many vested interests, without annoying a few people — or in the case of Ryanair — an awful lot of people.

Over the last few days, the airline industry has been in the news again. Aer Arann, aka Aer Lingus Regional, got a mention on its impending pay strike. It’s no wonder, though, given claims that unionised Aer Arann was paying its pilots who were qualified between five and 10 years as little as €30,000 per annum. If those claims are true that’s much less than your average Dublin Bus driver.

Unsurprisingly, Ryanair took the greatest share of the spotlight. According to one report the airline spews out as much carbon dioxide as Cyprus. That does seem horrific on the face of it. It’s an apparent inference that Ryanair is somehow doing something wrong. In fact, that claim is further underscored with a statistic that Ethiopia, with its 85m population and the highest number of cattle in the world, produces less carbon dioxide than Ryanair.

However, that is not really the full story because anyone continuing to read the article will see that a recent report produced by a US sustainability technology company, Brighter Planet, noted that Ryanair uses about a third of the fuel of some airlines and is the cleanest airline by passenger volume. It also operates one of the newest, and presumably one of the safest, fleets in the world.

Channel 4’s Dispatches presented a programme ‘Secrets from the Cockpit’ which contained allegations from a small number of Ryanair pilots about Ryanair fuel policies which they claim put passengers at risk. It was also claimed Ryanair intimidates pilots who report safety issues.

Apparently because of these claims, the president of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association, aka Aer Lingus’ pilots’ union, has taken the opportunity to question the effectiveness of the Irish Aviation Authority and demand that an investigation be undertaken. The IAA has countered by accusing Channel 4 of once again engaging in a ‘misguided attack’ on its regulation of Ryanair. Channel 4 says it will stand over its programme. Now where have we heard that one before?

According to the chairman of the unofficial Ryanair Pilots’ Group, the airline’s efforts to shut down Ryanair Pilot Group Facebook and Twitter accounts is an attempt to silence the public voice of the pilots. Given the questionable credibility of much of what appears on such channels one might wonder who is trying to silence whom.

On Sunday it was also reported that the British revenue was investigating the tax returns, or possible lack thereof, of UK-based Ryanair pilots. Timing is everything, isn’t it?

It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that someone is gaining from the negative spin that surrounds all of these reports. That they have all been raised around the same time would suggest it is a concentrated effort to undermine Ryanair.

It is said that there is no such thing as bad publicity but not even Michael O’Leary would want some of this and indeed in his declaration to sue Channel 4 he is throwing the gauntlet down.

These allegations are dangerous and could have the opposite effect to the intended one and could impact on all airlines.

Any breech of safety regulations should be dealt with. It might be worthwhile to have an investigation into fuel-carrying policies but let’s not just focus on Ryanair because someone with a vested interest in the demise or hogtying of Ryanair makes an allegation. Include all of the airlines landing in Irish airports and let’s put all of our minds at ease.