Panorama 12 Oct 2009 - Why Hate Ryanair?

Linku

I'm no big fan of Ryanair, or Michael O'Leary, but this programme looks like a load of crap. They seem to be focused on saying that Ryanair have hidden charges & costs, rather than focussing on important things, like their disregard for security procedures for staff in airports, or overworking pilots as still goes on, after it was exposed in the Channel 4 Dispatches programme in 2006.

Panorama also refused an uncut interview with someone from the airline, if a giggle see O'Leary bicker with a Panorama reporter over this, and how the television licence fee is used by the BBC here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_8298000/8298750.stm Pretty funny...

I'll make my mind up tonight when I see it, but even from the ads this show looks like a loads of crap, what happened to the good days of Panorama? Long live Channel 4...

amacachi

Linku wrote: »

I'm no big fan of Ryanair, or Michael O'Leary, but this programme looks like a load of crap. They seem to be focused on saying that Ryanair have hidden charges & costs, rather than focussing on important things, like their disregard for security procedures for staff in airports, or overworking pilots as still goes on, after it was exposed in the Channel 4 Dispatches programme in 2006.

Panorama also refused an uncut interview with someone from the airline, if a giggle see O'Leary bicker with a Panorama reporter over this, and how the television licence fee is used by the BBC here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_8298000/8298750.stm Pretty funny...

I'll make my mind up tonight when I see it, but even from the ads this show looks like a loads of crap, what happened to the good days of Panorama? Long live Channel 4...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanair#Dispatches_programme Didn't see the show myself but it seems there wasn't much substance to the programme.

minidazzler

I am in love with Ryanair!!!! he is class!!!

HarryD

Reading the correspondance on the Ryanair website, I reckon this is gonna be more tabloid investigative journalism.
Panorama has really gone to the dogs. As has prime time investigates.
Is there any good investigative journalism left? Cook?

I'm not a fan of Ryanair either, but I end up flying with them more than any other airline, as they serve routes I need.
They are not my favourite airline, far from it, but they claim they must be Ireland's favourite as more people fly with them than the others .

ScumLord

O'Leary was class in that interview, yerman didn't get a word in edgeways and he just turned it into a promo for Ryanair and all in such a polite manner, brilliant.

I don't normally fly with Ryanair, I think Aerlingus is worth a few extra euros and they fly to where I want to go. But the few times I did fly with them I had no problems with them at all. It's really only the fact they don't fly to the places I want to go that means I don't use them as often.

Banter Joe

That was hilarious. I can't see why they wouldn't just do an unedited interview.

ScumLord

Banter Joe wrote: »

That was hilarious. I can't see why they wouldn't just do an unedited interview.

They probably want to ask questions in a separate sitting so the interviewer doesn't look redundant.

Mark200

amacachi wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanair#Dispatches_programme Didn't see the show myself but it seems there wasn't much substance to the programme.

I was about to say that yeah. It was shown to be extremely biased and fabricated the truth.

I'm gonna watch the Panorama thing tonight but yeah I read that correspondence on the Ryanair website and it looks like it won't be the best investigative journalism in the world

Kev_ps3

That was gas, fair play to him.

JonathanAnon

I just watched that doorstep interview with Michael O'Leary. He really played it well, especially the bit at the end where he suggests that the BBC would have saved money by flying Ryanair instead of flying BMI.

I dont understand why Panorama wont just interview him and put it out uncut, if that's all that he wants.

Linku

Word on the street is that they're gonna offer 100,000 'free' flights for every false claim in the programme, this is just turning into one big ad for them!

Hadn't read up on the dispatches programme, a lot of the stuff was so unbelievable it wouldnt suprised me that it was exaggerated or faked, but the hours the pilots claimed to be working really was concerning. Dunno how they two reporters got away with wearing cameras on them for six months though.

amacachi

Linku wrote: »

Word on the street is that they're gonna offer 100,000 'free' flights for every false claim in the programme, this is just turning into one big ad for them!

Hadn't read up on the dispatches programme, a lot of the stuff was so unbelievable it wouldnt suprised me that it was exaggerated or faked, but the hours the pilots claimed to be working really was concerning. Dunno how they two reporters got away with wearing cameras on them for six months though.

What kind of hours were they working? There's laws governing the hours they can do and the majority of airlines have their pilots flying as close to the limit as possible.

padz

jus watchin the docu now, interesting about the deals made with the minor airports& the cabin crew are mostly agency staff so they dont have full employment rights,... what do u all think of the program?

DundalkDuffman

Its a terrible level of journalism from the BBC, they aren't really saying anything thats not already known. Personally I am not a big O'Leary fan but it seems like a bit of a hatchet job.

KevIRL

Panorama has sunk to a new low imo. Thats tabloid gutter sensationalist crap. For shame BBC

Linku

Well that was horrendous. All they did was state the obvious for 30 minutes, and it actually does come across bitterness from the BBC. A true waste of the licence fee...

padz

i think it was fair that they had the 16yr old on sayin how he beifits from the 5pence fare's and the most he ever paid was 5pound return from leeds to dublin, i think if u know the ryanair rules u wont get screwed

KevIRL

lol

Speaking today Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“BBC Panorama know that they have no case in this ‘Hatchet Job’ programme. We have already rubbished their false claims about hidden charges and an agreement with Airbus. It is a pity that Panorama, with all their resources, investigative journalists and the power of the BBC, were not honest enough to agree to a ‘live’ or an unedited interview with Ryanair, which would have provided Panorama’s viewers with ‘balance and facts’, instead of Panorama’s ‘false claims and fiction’.

“Ryanair will be launching another widely popular Seat Sale on midnight Monday to expose Panorama’s false claims, censorship and now sadly lies. It is a shame that the BBC waste so much licence payers money on investigating why Ryanair is Britain’s favourite airline, when all they need do is take a couple of low fare on time flights like 66 million other consumers will do this year. These clowns even wasted licence payers money flying to Dublin on high fare, frequently delayed, BMI, instead of flying with Britain’s favourite airline Ryanair”.

Greenman

What a waste of time, I'm a BBC fan but there was nothing in it that was not suprising.

-1 for Panorama.

Latchy

Well as mentioned ,we didn't learn anything new about Ryanair from tonights programme that we didn't already know except as somebody who recently purchased a rtn ticket to Dublin ,I only realised after I had booked that I had to print out the boarding card .Not a problem for me but it will be for anybody who turns up at the check in without a print out boarding card .

What I did discover is the key to getting the cheapest flights wiyhout the extra charges ie, for £2.50 is to book online with a visa elctron card instead of a credit card

missingtime

More free advertising for Ryanair. And Michael O'Leary LOVES his free advertising.

kenon

Just watched it there, I thought O'Leary was excellent in that interview outside the Radisson.

As was said before, nothing new was highlighted in this programme but was entertaining just for that interview with O'Leary.

JonathanAnon

Serious own goal by the BBC / Panorama. They came to Dublin expecting to have some stuffed shirt avoiding their questions, but were completely outmanouvered by a witty, knowledgeable and honest O'Leary. I think to any reasonable person, his request for an unedited interview was fair enough which pretty much nullified their reason for doorstepping him. Then he just embarrassed them by pointing out that if they'd flown with Ryanair they would have saved 400 pounds, and got free Prime Time advertising for his company..

You gotta love Michael. If only we had him running the Public Service and not the unions.

mike65

At least BBC showed it, had SKY or indeed RTE made a programme like that it would have been 'accidently' deleted.

Joey the lips

Watched the program. Did not learn anything new. We all know what we are getting into with ryanair but the way I see it is we have choices. We can choose to fly with the or choose not to.

I dont think anyone cares what the staff are paid or what they get. We all simply want to travel to spain for a euro

Well dont michael, another pr stunt well handled.

Sorry

What a worthless program. They must be running out of material.

groovyg

Overall I thought the programme was rubbish, it didn't tell us anything we didn't know already about Ryanair. If anything it just generated more free publicity for Ryanair. I've flown with them a few times and have never had any problems with them. A friend of mine uses them every 2nd wkend to go to football matches in the UK, if the flights weren't so cheap he wouldn't be buying a season ticket.

Parakeets

It seems to me that Panorama just got lazy and depended on others to do the work for them. Their main journalist could have past for being asleep during most of the show.
However we should do everything to avoid Ryanair becoming a monopoly in this country as it will only serve Ryanair and nobody else. This point was well made throughout the programme.

Gekko

Watched this myself after reading through the correspondence on the Ryanair website.

I'd be a fan of Panorama and watch it regularly, but this was possibly one of its worst ever programmes, if not the worst ever.

It was a total waste of time and I'm not even sure a poor journalism student at uni would do this...really scraping the barrel.

As long as you know what the deal is when you're booking with Ryanair and there are no technical faults, other delays, or bad weather causing delays on the day you're flying, and you fly the way they want you to so you get the best deal (ie with no checked-in bags) you have absolutely nothing to lose.

I used them twice recently, one weekend after another. I got from Dublin - Gatwick for €15 and Bristol - Dublin for £15. Just carry-on luggage, flight on time, no problems.

Probably no-one actually enjoys flying Ryanair. But for that price you'll sit on the plane for an hour, grin and bear it and think of the money that you're saving that you can then spend elsewhere.

Having said that, I'd think twice before flying anywhere with them that's over an hour's flight away unless there was no alternative. But that's my choice and there's no doubt a price to pay for a little bit more comfort and peace of mind on Aer Lingus or another airline.

Aidric

The whole programme smacked of desperation and revealed nothing new. There were weak attempts to balance the programme but overall it came across as trying too hard to catch Ryanair out.
The guy did make one good point though about complaining passengers. He said those who have used other airlines and then switch over to Ryanair have no right to be complaining. They can't have their cake and eat it.

Joey the lips

Aidric wrote: »

The guy did make one good point though about complaining passengers. He said those who have used other airlines and then switch over to Ryanair have no right to be complaining. They can't have their cake and eat it.

Too through. I never got that. I am not a fan of ryanair and usually pay the bit extra with aerlingus. But i know a couple of things

1. Without them we would have no cheap flights in ireland.

2. Without them i would not have flown to so many places

3. Keycamp and Europarcs who operate in europe use the campsites nearest there airports.

4, Many people have bought apts near airports they service. Granted they have been stung but these are the risks

Overall. I learned nothing new except I am sorry i never bought ryanair shares instead of eircom shares :eek:

christy c

I think Ryanair came out looking very well out of this, they were probably expecting something along the lines of Channel 4's programme a few years ago but i'd say they're very pleased with it

amacachi

Ryanair said they'd have a promotion of 100,000 free flights for each lie in the show last night. They found 11 lies so 1.1 milltion free seats available today. I particularly like number 11. :pac:
http://www.ryanair.com/site/IE/news.php?yr=09&month=oct&story=pro-en-131009

Biggins

I just love number 11 of his rebuttal on his site! LOL

Last night Panorama made 11 false or misleading claims as follows:

1. Panorama featured check in problems at Stansted one weekend in August with no mention of the fact that on the other 32 weekends since web check-in was introduced Ryanair has seen no problems whatsoever at Stansted or the other 150 airports Ryanair operates from.

2. Panorama quoted a “Which” magazine survey which has no basis in reality whatsoever since “Which” continue to nominate British Airways as Britain’s favourite airline despite the fact that three times more passengers prefer Ryanair.

3. Panorama claimed that Ryanair charges £5 to all passengers for web check-in but omitted that more than half of Ryanair’s passengers avoid this fee by booking Ryanair’s promotional fares (which include free web check-in).

4. Panorama interviewed a ‘website usability expert’, who claimed that ryanair.com was designed to force passengers to buy Ryanair travel insurance. Panorama hid the fact that over 96% of Ryanair passengers decline travel insurance, which clearly confirms that this ‘website usability expert’ was clueless.

5. Panorama produced a ‘Professor of Corporate Reputation’ to suggest that ‘people feel cheated’ by Ryanair – which is clearly false when over 66 million passengers this year will choose to fly Ryanair because they feel cheated by BA’s and Easyjet’s high fares.

6. Panorama claimed that Ryanair’s 25 minute turnaround was a ‘record time’. This is false since Southwest Airlines in the US operates a 15 minute turnaround.

7. A Panorama actor claimed that cabin crew would not get a contract if they didn’t meet their targets at the end of the day or year. Totally false.

8. Panorama claimed that cabin crew pay £2,000 to train and qualify as cabin crew but conveniently omitted that these payments were not paid to Ryanair.

9. Another Panorama actor claimed Ryanair had ‘no respect or dignity for pilots or cabin crew’ – this is a false claim put about by the British Airways pilots’ union. Respect and dignity in Ryanair come in the form of high pay, rapid promotion and job security – unlike at BA where pilots are facing job cuts and pay cuts.

10. Panorama falsely claimed that no food or drinks are provided to cabin crew without pointing out that each pilot and cabin crew member receives a food allowance on every flight to pay for their own food and drinks.

11. Panorama claimed that “O’Leary is a bully” – this is clearly false when the whole world knows that O’Leary is a kind and gentle, caring and thoughtful, sensitive and saintly human being widely beloved by all Ryanair’s 6,500 people and its 66m passengers.

Source: http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/news.php?yr=09&month=oct&story=pro-en-131009

SoupyNorman

I was hugely confused watching this.

I thought it was to be an xpose on Ryanair when it turned out to be more of an Advertising feature. Most of the negatives they were trying to pedal are some of the most widely known views of the Airline...hell they even admit them themselves.

Highlighting the fact that he arrived 20mins early in Sweden = fail!!!

They highlighted just one instance of delays even though it will and has happened to nearly every airline.

Stating that having the safety procedure printed to the back of seats as opposed to cards to "save weight" nearly had me choking on my cornflakes.

Trying to take on O'Leary, ambush style...well we saw how that played out.

The poor web design element was a real clutch at straws.If a person has trouble navigating the website then I dont believe they are fit to fly.

I could go on for a while more, they really made a balls of this one. I'm no advocate of Ryanair but it's like they thought they'd have an easy target on this outing but they barely seemed capable of putting together 30mins of film and most of that was taken up with people professing their love for the low fares airline.

nitrogen

mike65 wrote: »

At least BBC showed it, had SKY or indeed RTE made a programme like that it would have been 'accidently' deleted.

True. Whatever people might say about the BBC, at least the organisation criticises other arms of itself from time to time.

nitrogen

It was pure tabloid sh!te. They mentioned Ryanair bought planes after 9/11 from Boeing, almost insinuating it was immoral. Put a different slant on it and it's genius business.

As O'Leary said, Panorama had some obsessional agenda with Ryanair. I've never seen them targeting other airlines, inquiring why the fare is so high and demanding the actual breakdown of prices.

There's no such thing as bad advertising - that slogan rang very true with this program.