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Extra charges on Ryanair flights have increased by up to 700 per cent since 2006, it emerged this week.

The airline has announced it will increase the fee to check in luggage by 33 per cent – to £40 per bag per return flight – during the peak travel months of July and August. This compares with the original £5 charge in 2006.

Passenger must also now pay a £10 online check-in fee per return flight (not payable on “‘promotional fares'”), a charge that did not exist in 2006. A fee of £10 per person per return flight is also added to all payments made by credit or debit card, with the exception of those involving prepaid MasterCard debit cards. This compares with a charge of £3.50 per person per return flight in 2006.

On top of these charges, the airline has again said it plans to install coin-operated lavatories on its fleet, charging customers £1 a time to use them

source: Telegraph.co.uk

Ryanair Holdings announced a halt to its in-flight phone service after a 13-month contract with OnAir ended, and invited rival providers to bid for the expansion of the service to its entire fleet.

The carrier said it will now invite other providers of in-flight communications to tender for access to its 73 million annual passengers. Considering Ryanair is well known for rapidly dropping initiatives that don’t pay off, news of a tender suggests the airline was happy with the trial it ran on part of is fleet.

OnAir currently works with six airlines and plans to launch services with six more during the course of the year.

source: marketwatch.com

European airport authorities subsidise Ryanair to the tune of at least €11 (£10) per passenger, Air France-KLM claimed this week as it filed a lawsuit in Brussels against the low-cost carrier.

In the latest in a series of legal attacks on Ryanair’s business model, the Franco-Dutch airline accused the Irish company of receiving illegal state aid and distorting competition.

Air France-KLM said that Ryanair obtained at least €660 million a year in financial incentives from regional authorities in Europe, notably in the form of reduced ground-handling fees and other airport charges.

source: Times Online

A Ryanair flight to Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, was forced to land on the neighbouring island of Fuerteventura during a thunderstorm.

When arriving at the airport, around 120 passengers claim they were left ‘’stranded” to organise their own accommodation and travel plans with no word from the airline.

European guidelines state if the flight disruption is outside the control of the airline, no monetary compensation is due.

source: News.com.au

Ryanair has been officially branded the worst budget airline for hitting customers with hidden charges.

Holiday watchdogs investigated the cost of passengers checking in one piece of luggage each and paying by credit card. Stansted-based Ryanair charges spiralled by 61 per cent – ahead of Bmibaby, Jet2 and easyJet.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said: “Everybody knows that Ryanair has the lowest fares guaranteed which is why Ryanair will carry 73 million passengers this year.

source: Mirror.co.uk

It could all be dismissed as just another Ryanair publicity stunt.

Michael O’Leary, chief executive of the budget airline, has challenged Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the largest shareholder in easyJet, its arch-rival, to a race round Trafalgar Square to settle a dispute over insults concerning “‘high fares’” and the portrayal of Sir Stelios as Pinocchio.

But the latest Ryanair insults have provoked a counter-threat. For the first time in the history of their rivalry, easyJet and Sir Stelios are threatening to sue Ryanair ” on two counts.

“‘If Stelios does not want to run, maybe he can go round in a wheelbarrow,’” said Mr O’Leary. “‘Or maybe we could do sumo wrestling.’”

source: Times Online

Aer Lingus Group Plc aims to join a global airline alliance to add destinations and attract more passengers after dropping its “no-frills” business model, Chief Executive Officer Christoph Mueller said in an interview.

Aer Lingus pulled out of the Oneworld alliance, which includes British Airways Plc, in 2006, saying the revenue benefits weren’t sufficient. The carrier continues to codeshare with BA, meaning the pair sell tickets on each other’s flights, and has similar pacts with Air France’s Dutch unit KLM and UAL Corp.’s United Airlines, members of the SkyTeam and Star groups.

Ryanair Holdings Plc, Aer Lingus’s biggest competitor and a 29 percent shareholder after two failed takeover bids, doesn’t have alliances with other airlines and operates its routes as point-to-point services without connections to other flights. The strategy has made it Europe’s biggest discount carrier.

source: BusinessWeek.com

Low-cost airline Ryanair has announced that it would stop waiving booking fees for customers paying by Visa Electron from the beginning of next year. The group currently charges £5 per passenger per journey for all flights booked using other credit or debit cards.

But from the beginning of next year, Ryanair will also levy these fees on people paying by Visa Electron, and it will instead offer free booking to people using MasterCard Prepaid cards.

fuente: Press Association

Ryanair has been named the worst ‘family’ brand in a list dominated by airlines.

The low-cost carrier was described as doing little to look after family values and not enough to listen to customers.

The only travel company to make it into the top 50 family-friendly brands was Virgin Atlantic which took 44th place. Many of the other airlines were listed below banks.

Struggling British Airways was placed in 61st place with easyJet at 88.

source: Mail Online

Members of a small community near the northern German city of Lübeck have filed a lawsuit against Irish budget airline Ryanair after a low-flying plane allegedly put an 82-year-old woman in the hospital.

The woman apparently suffered a serious shock after a Ryanair jet coming in to land at the Lübeck-Blankensee airport flew so low that it sent several roof tiles crashing into her garden. She is now in the hospital with heart problems.

A spokesman for state prosecutors in Lübeck confirmed they were investigating, but Ryanair rejects any responsibility for the incident, saying the plane was not flying at an unusual altitude or speed.

source: The Local.de