Ryanair News Release - EU TRANSPARENCY RULES

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Ryanair News
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News Release
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18.07.06
RYANAIR WELCOMES EU TRANSPARENCY RULES, BUT WHY MUST WE WAIT UNTIL DECEMBER 2007?

Ryanair, Europe’s largest low fares airline today welcomed the latest proposals from the European Commission on transparency of air fares, but asked why it will take 18 months - until December 2007 - for the Transport Commission to actually put these rules in place?

Ryanair commented that today’s proposals were another PR exercise by the EU Transport Commission which again hides their failure to tackle issues of real importance to European air travellers.

Commenting on today’s proposals, Ryanair’s Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary said:

“This morning’s announcement by the EU Transport Commission on transparency of air fares is welcome, but one has to ask why European air passengers will have to wait 18 months until December 2007 for this Commission to even implement its own proposals? This morning’s press conference from the Transport Commission highlights its preference for press releases, instead of taking real action to advance the interests of European consumers.

“Ryanair warmly welcomes any proposals that will increase the transparency of air fares for European passengers. Any such transparency rules will highlight:

(1) That Ryanair provides all passengers with a full breakdown of its fares, fees and charges both on the homepage of its website and again before they are allowed to book any flight on http://www.ryanair.com.

(2) Any such transparency will emphasise the enormous difference between Ryanair’s average fare of £28 and the average fares of our high fare competitors from Easyjet (average fare £42) to British Airways (average fare £190).

(3) Any such transparency will highlight the scandal of fuel surcharges being extorted by Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa while Ryanair continues to guarantee no fuel surcharges today, tomorrow or ever.

“We regret that the Transport Commission in its desire to issue further press releases this morning has failed to tackle any of the real issues of importance to European air travellers such as:

(1) Why must passengers wait until December 2007 – over 18 months away – for these transparency rules to be introduced?

(2) What is the Transport Commission doing to check in the scandalous level of fuel surcharges being levied by British Airways, Air France and Lufthansa which bear little relationship to the cost of oil and are presently the subject of price fixing investigations by the OFT in the UK and the DOT in the U.S.?

(3) Why has the Transport Commission still failed to collect the illegal State Aid given to Olympic Airways years after it was supposed to be repaid?

(4) Why hasn’t the Transport Commission banned the policy of overbooking, instead of just introducing compensation rules for victims of this practice?

(5) Why does the Transport Commission sign off on billions of State Aid to flag carrier airlines in Europe under the guise of Public Service Order (PSO) subsidies, which allow airlines like Alitalia and Air France to maintain high fare monopolies on routes, while receiving billions of euros of Government subsidies.

(6) Why is the EU Transport Commission seriously considering emissions trading penalties for European airlines which may double the cost of air travel for European consumers at a time when non European airlines will suffer no such self imposed penalties?

(7) Why is the Transport Commission which talks about advancing passenger interests in reality supporting plans to further tax those passengers and damage their interests?

(8) Why did this Transport Commission stand idly by while the French Government added a further €1 tax to air fares to/from France for relief of debt in the third world?

Ryanair regrets that this Transport Commission is more interested in press releases and PR than it is in tackling the real causes of high fares (fuel surcharges and emissions trading schemes). Only in Brussels could a proposal which takes 18 months to be implemented be described by the Commission as “taking action”, when effectively nothing will happen until 2008. Yet again the EU Transport Commission “talks” a lot but “does” little.