Ryanair using fake IATA airport code for Barcelona

probe

Ryanair's website now has a fake IATA code for Barcelona (BAR). The IATA code for Barcelona airport is BCN.

Of course Ryanair doesn't fly to Barcelona airport or anywhere near that city. The nearest airports they do fly to - Reus (REU) is 120 km from Barcelona and Girona (GRO) airport is 95 km.

BAR is already assigned to an airport on Baker Island. Needless confusion to a system that doesn't permit duplicate codes to exist.

Original Steyr

If you click Barcelona on their site it asks you to select either Reus or Girona.

lord lucan

Original Steyr wrote: »

If you click Barcelona on their site it asks you to select either Reus or Girona.

Yeah,i noticed that the other day. I'd say it's FR trying respond to people who don't know that Reus and Girona are Ryanairs "Barcelona" airports.

AfterDusk

probe wrote: »

BAR is already assigned to an airport on Baker Island. Needless confusion to a system that doesn't permit duplicate codes to exist.

Confusion? I'm sure 90% of people who fly everyday don't even know what an IATA code is let alone that BAR is that of Baker Island. Since when do people book flights by looking at IATA codes?

This is a non-story tbh

RTTH

Reus or Gerona are very acceptable connections to Barcelona as it takes in and around an hour to get there and also costs about e8 by train. (Reus) The commute is not a rip off like other airports.

Dacian

I don't think this is a ploy by FR. Its simply a way for passengers to find flights for Barcelona. I believe some airlines use LON as a code for London flights if the passenger doesn't specify a particular airport (LGW,LHR,STN,LTN,LCY)

crushproof

Dacian wrote: »

I don't think this is a ploy by FR. Its simply a way for passengers to find flights for Barcelona. I believe some airlines use LON as a code for London flights if the passenger doesn't specify a particular airport (LGW,LHR,STN,LTN,LCY)

To be honest I'd love if it Ryanair just had a one London for all airports in their search, or "All London airports". Would mean you can easily find the cheapest fares to London. I think, not sure, that Easyjet do this.

bongi69

neil2304 wrote: »

Since when do people book flights by looking at IATA codes?

Lazy ones like me do :P
I know my frequent ones, and airports I've gone through off by heart:
DUR, AMS, STN, MCO, JFK, JNB, LHR, CDG, ORK, EIN (Ryanair "way" to AMS €38 round trip on the train to Schipol), HER to name a few

sceptre

Given that Baker Island is uninhabited and hence doesn't have any regular scheduled flights, getting visited once a year by the US fish & wildlife service,I think it's safe to say that Mary down the local travel agents isn't going to be accidentally booking anyone to the heart of the Pacific ocean when they wanted to go to Spain to get sick on a Dalí sculpture. Though if Adam Sandler is reading, that's the plot of your next movie.

Davidth88

sceptre wrote: »

Though if Adam Sandler is reading, that's the plot of your next movie.

Nice one !!!!!

I can actually picture it now.

I the OP's point ( or near it ) , I still laugh when I hear Hahn described as Frankfurt or Beauvais as Paris , considering they are 75 MILES and 56 MILES from those cities respectivly .

However to a great extent you get what you pay for.

Poly

They should push the Girona airport more, Girona is a lovely city.

probe

Dacian wrote: »

I don't think this is a ploy by FR. Its simply a way for passengers to find flights for Barcelona. I believe some airlines use LON as a code for London flights if the passenger doesn't specify a particular airport (LGW,LHR,STN,LTN,LCY)

LON is a valid IATA code for the London airports. BAR belongs to another airport. On another continent - nothing to do with Barcelona. Theft of codes. Breach of standards.

DE is the ISO-3166 country code for Germany. GE is Georgia.

DE is here: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ru&sll=34.597042,-79.963989&sspn=3.404548,8.453979&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Russian+Federation&ll=50.527397,11.282959&spn=5.434599,16.907959&z=7

GE is here: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ru&sll=34.597042,-79.963989&sspn=3.404548,8.453979&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Russian+Federation&ll=42.151187,44.099121&spn=3.168334,8.453979&z=8

How often does one see GE or similar codes on English language documents purporting to relate to Germany?

Every airline in the world uses a 6 character locator for reservations. Except Easyjet who use a 7 character thing, just to be different and non-compliant with standards.

You might as well have an anglo litre that is 123 cl - rather than 100 - in the same way as a british gallon differs from an american gallon. It would be really helpful refuelling an aircraft in various countries to have variations in standards of measurement in different countries. No doubt it would assist airline safety big time.

On 99% of the mail I get from Ireland or Britain, the addresses are crap - it is a wonder how the sorting machines figure it out - (probably they can't and they have to be manually sorted - hence the delay) - because they have totally screwed up the postcode. What school do they go to? Do they not teach them to address an envelope correctly, I ask myself.... (There is a standard mailing address format that is used across continental Europe including Russia, China and Latin America).

Why do Anglos (including Oirish ejits) have such a problem with using and complying with internationally agreed standards?

Ryanair has been engaged in airport name fraud for years. The company is descending to a new level stealing airport codes to further promote their geo-deception.

probe

sceptre wrote: »

Given that Baker Island is uninhabited

The population of the island is irrelevant. It has an airport with an IATA assigned airport code which points to latitude and longitude coordinates in databases. Why screw the system up?

Why use the BAR airport code at all? Why not just state Barcelona without the code - and avoid "mis-educating" people?

There are search engines picking up this crap. Soon it will be virtual reality.... It could end up being hoovered up and in navigation software.

Zyox

probe wrote: »

There are search engines picking up this crap.

http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=boards.ie+forum+probe+posts+more+crap

Indeed.

Lifelike

They also use a fake IATA code for Munich. For "Munich West (Memmingen)" MUN is displayed, when in fact it's MUC. Although similar to the Barcelona case, no such airport exists, when you select Munich West (Memmingen) it tells you to select "Memmingen (Munich West)", even though again, the name of the airport is in fact simply Memmingen. And despite being convenient for trips to Munich because of the shuttle bus from the airport to the train station, it's still 100km from Munich!

The flights are cheap though.