Ryanair to pay 500k in compensation/fees for declaring wrong weight

rivegauche

https://www.t-online.de/nachrichten/id_85145712/beim-gewicht-geschummelt-ryanair-muss-gebuehren-nachzahlen.html
German text:

German Court case.
Ryanair declared a weight lower than the maximum permissible take off weight.
dispute dragged on for 10 years.
There is no suggestion of a safety issue here.

Seems unfair on Ryanair as they don't carry freight and the longer distance routes would be mainly to holiday destinations but irrespective of what the actual maximum weight was in 2012 an official body had determined that on some routes they appeared to be actually heavier than their declared weights.

notharrypotter

User charges which cover the cost of providing Air Traffic Control service are partially based on the weight of the aircraft.
Ryanair by deliberately using a lower claimed weight deliberately attempted to underpay what they owed.

arubex

On that topic, Easyjet used to have a couple of 'grades' of A319s, both exactly the same airframe but one paper-derated for a lower declared MTOW. IIRC it was something like five tonnes difference which put them into a lower fees category.

Those airframes allocated to longer runs like Malta were up-rated for a charge by Airbus, which meant they could uplift extra fuel. Nothing technically changed except their declared MTOW on the paperwork. Just an administrative 'hack'.

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Ryanair also operate a variable MTOW for their aircraft so depending on that particular sector, the aircraft's weight can be adjusted to save on airway/airport charges.

AnRothar

Ryanair also operate a variable MTOW for their aircraft so depending on that particular sector, the aircraft's weight can be adjusted to save on airway/airport charges.

From the article during the relevant period Ryanair used the lowest weight and stuck with it.
They probably knew they were on a hiding to nothing once the case started and corrected their declared weights since.

smurfjed

We all do that, we have a little placard in the aircraft supported by AFM references that allow you to adjust the operational weights such as takeoff or landing. In our case we use it to reduce the landing minima for approaches.

Stovepipe

That 500k will be redeemed by sticking a few bob on tickets for six months. punters wont notice or care, so no loss to Ryanair.