07/12/2007

Closure Call Is An Accolade Says Aviation Regulator

An official Government-backed regulator has said demands to close down the organisation prove that it is doing a good job and is protecting the public.

The Commissioner for Aviation Regulation made his comments on foot of reported demands from Ryanair to have his office closed down – effectively an accolade, because it has been so effective in enforcing passenger rights.

Speaking at the launch of passenger complaint statistics for the first eight months of this year, the commissioner, Cathal Guiomard said that he was not going to be intimidated.

Mr Guiomard insisted the regulations would be enforced and that his office would not be dictated to.

The Commissioner and Ryanair had clashed recently over passenger compensation for cancellations, passengers being denied boarding and passenger entitlements to refreshments for delays of two hours or more.

Overall though, statistics just released show that 239 complaints had been received relating to 21 airlines.

Some 77 of the valid complaints dealt with by the Commissioner related to flights from Dublin, Cork and Shannon. Over 80% of the complaints related to denied boarding or long delays.

Around 32 complaints were made against Ryanair, and 17 against Aer Lingus.

However, according to the Commissioner these complaint rates were low when compared with the number of passengers carried by the airlines.

Top of the table was Scottish based airline Flyglobespan, with two complaints and a passenger volume of 10,324.

(BMcC)

Related Irish News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

26 September 2011
Taxing Time For Irish Transatlantic Flights
The British Chancellor George Osborne has hinted that a deal on abolishing Air Passenger Duty that would exempt the North's only transatlantic route could be announced this week.
03 March 2010
Ryanair's Easyjet Complaint Upheld
Ryanair has won a court battle against Easyjet over claims the former was flying passengers to the wrong destination. The UK's advertising watchdog found that low-cost airline Easyjet 'denigrated' rival Ryanair by suggesting the carrier did not fly passengers to the destinations they had booked.
02 March 2009
Road Toll Tops Five
There have now been five road deaths over the past weekend. There were two fatalities this morning alone, with the latest crash now being probed by Gardaí in Co Kilkenny. They said today they are investigating a two-vehicle road traffic collision, which occurred at 7.15am this morning on the Waterford side of Ballyhale.
08 January 2016
Ryanair Reports Record Passenger Growth
Ryanair has announced it has become the first airline to carry more than 100 million international customers in one year. The Irish airline has released its December figures, where its traffic increased 25% to 7.5 million customers. In December 2014, it carried 6.0 million customers.
05 January 2015
Ryanair Passenger Numbers Increase
Ryanair has confirmed its passenger numbers increased for December 2014. Last month, the airline carried 6.02 million passengers, compared to 5.02 million in December 2013, an increase of 20%. Its load factor, which is how many seats it fills on each flights, also increased by 7% last month, from 81% to 88%.