Last night, more than 100 furious Ryanair passengers refused to leave their parked plane after a last-minute diversion from Paris to a Belgian airport 225 miles up north. In an attempt to convince the passengers to leave the plane, the crew locked the toilets, turned out the lights and left the plane. What would you have done, as a passenger and as a crew member?
What happened? The jet carrying mainly French travelers had left Fez in Morocco with a three-hour delay. As a result of this delay and/or as a result of heavy fog in Paris (opinions differ) the jet couldn’t land in Paris. Consequently, the plane was diverted to a Belgian airport 225 miles up north.
Passengers on board were angry about the delay, about the last-minute diversion and most notably about the fact that they were not properly informed about the diversion. As a response, they staged a sit-in. Since the crew was off-duty when they touched ground and since they couldn’t convince the passengers to leave the plane, they locked the toilets, turned out the lights and left the plane on the tarmac, reportedly with the cockpit door open.
The situation got ugly soon. Since the crew was not allowed to work anymore and since Ryanair had no staff at the airport, it was up to airport officials to lure the passengers out of the plane into the more comfortable transit lounge. There they could wait for the coaches that would bring them to their final destination. After more than four hours of negotiations, at 4 o’clock this morning, the passengers finally gave in. Some of them, however, were still so upset that they assaulted and spit at the airport personnel when they left the plane.
In a statement later today, Ryanair thanked all passengers who left the plane according to instructions. At the same time, they condemned the attitude of the majority of people on the plane. In my opinion, both parties lost. Since I still can’t get my head around this surreal story, I am asking you: How would you have handled this situation, as a passenger and as a crew member? I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Source: AFP.
I would have left the plan as quickly as possible. Anger doesn’t do anything. They wasted MORE of their time, rather than less. Nobody wins, the trick is to cut your losses.
Hi Puppet SEO. Thanks for stopping by!
I assume you would have left the plane as soon as possible if you were one of the passengers, not if you were one of the crew members, right? In any case, you are right on the money when you say that anger doesn’t get you anywhere. In the end, those passengers wasted another 4 to 5 hours, and a lot of energy (not too mention that some of them lost their humanity when they took their anger out on the airport personnel). I am still curious about what exactly (and/or who) got those passengers so worked up. Probably a series of events. Nevertheless, this story once more illustrates the importance of good communication. Providing proper information in a transparent and timely manner is the foundation of a common understanding with your customers.
They say when you lie down with dogs, you can expect to get fleas. So too when you travel Ryan Air, the cheapest airline in history (and I mean cheap not only in terms of price, but in terms of quality as well).
Clearly, the passengers were treated more poorly than usual, which is why they staged this revolt at the end of a fairly typical flight delay and diversion. I’ve been delayed longer and diverted farther – I’ll bet we all have – and I never thought to stage a rebellion. So you have to feel for them. But… what did they expect? Seriously. One chooses Ryan for the low prices; there is no secret that the airline’s founder and namesake holds his customers and his staff in contempt. He is a classic 19th-Century businessman, and to him business will always be a zero-sum game. Fly Ryan at your peril.
His flight crew… well, that’s another story. I feel bad for these folks. Who would work for Ryan except as a very last resort? They go off the clock the minute they land? Well, on the one hand, as responsible employees and good people, they should have stayed to see this out despite their lack of compensation. On the other hand, that would make them suckers, pawns of Mr. Ryan, who they would realize is laughing all the way to the bank with their earned-but-unpaid overtime. Would I have left? No. Would I work for Ryan? Maybe, if I were desperate to feed my children. But not for very long.
The truly unfortunate victims in this episode are the airport personnel. This was in no way their fault, yet they were abused – even spit upon? I’d have involved the police. No customer has a right to act that way, ever.
There you have it. A bad company, a terrible result. I’m sure they’ll be teaching this case in business school for years to come. And Mr. Ryan will be chuckling over it at least as long.
Hi Ted, thanks for stopping by and leaving such a honest comment.
I agree with you: cheap often comes with a price. Customers who choose Ryanair choose cheap. They get stripped-down service in return. Nothing wrong with that: Ryanair is pretty clear about its market proposition. However, customers who choose cheap don’t choose bad service. Unfortunately this is exactly what they received.
Ryanair can’t be blamed for bad weather conditions and subsequent diversions. However, Ryanair can be blamed for not (or poorly) informing their travelers (this is based on travelers’ stories, mind you). More importantly, Ryanair can also be blamed for taking such harsh measures to fight (I cannot find a better word for what they did) this rebellion. I agree with you that the cabin crew, as responsible employees and good people, should have stayed to see this out despite their lack of compensation – up to a certain point. Imagine a crowd of 100 furious passengers in a plane cabin. I would do everything to listen to and talk with these people, but I wouldn’t risk being assaulted or spit upon.
As for the spitting incident, I feel sorry for the airport personnel as well. I too condemn this action (Ryanair should never have done that in public by the way – what an easy way to divert attention from their own shortcomings). However, from the customers’ perspective, they were only dealing with one company, and I am sure they were too blind with frustration to be able to differentiate between Ryanair personnel and airport staff. But then again, frustrated customers are one thing, aggressive customers another. Such aggression should never be tolerated. As we often said before: we often blame organizations, but the customer is not always right either.
Thanks again for your great comment, Ted.
People Often forget there’s two sides to a story. What seems to be done by flightcrew for instance can be misinterpreted easily. It is very plausible (given the earlier 3 hr delay) that the flightcrew was also out of duty time, which is strictly regulated and has nothing to do with money or ‘compassion’ with the passengers. If an incident would occur -even on the ground- with tje flightcrew
Found out of legal duty time there would be serious consequences.
Passenger often show little respect or understanding for choices made ultimately for their own safety. A diversion is made for safety reasons, never ever for commercial reasons. A diversion is always more costly to the company than regular scheduled operations. (think about the aircraft being on the wrong airport for the first morningflight. Because Ryanair is ultra low cost most of them second guess choices made for their safety as being choices made for the benefit of the company. Lot of passengers have a tendency to become more disruptive more quickly on board an aircraft, this us known as air rage, and often experienced. Last but not least, in case of a diversion there have to be made arrangements for alternative travel. That obviously takes time, and it gets interpreted often as being left out there with no information at all.
Bottom line is that in the case of Ryanair you NEVER get the benefit of the doubt, and that is not always justified.
Hi Frank, thanks for stopping by and focusing on Ryanair’s side of the story. I appreciate that!
As with all stories, the truth will lie in the middle. I believe Ryanair when they say that they diverted the plane as a safety precaution. In fact, I am pretty sure they did, provided that three other flights took the same detour earlier that day. I also agree with you that taking arrangements costs time. However, I don’t think this should prevent an organization to communicate what is going on, and why they can’t tell more at that moment. This is what I meant with transparent and timely communication. As long as people know what is going on, why it is happening and most importantly, that someone is doing everything to fix the situation, they will be far less furious. We often make the mistake of waiting to inform our customers until we have a solution to their problem. Why not communicate that we are aware of the problem, and that we will keep our customers updated on any progress we make?
But then again, we will never get a 100% objective report of what happened on that plane (and before). Therefore, I don’t want to say who is wrong and who is not. However, locking toilets, turning off lights and refusing water can never be the proper way to get an upset crowd of a plane. Likewise, spitting at people can never be the proper way to express your frustrations.
Thanks again for your comment, Frank!
I’m surprised that Ryanair was not worried about the passengers sabotaging the plane – as that could easily have been the next step. This would have been far costlier than handing out some water or ensuring that customers were informed and taken care of.
Locking the toilets in this case is petty though – and unhygenic. Also, most people that fly regularly know that there is a little cover on the door that you can lift to gain access to the latch to unlock the toilets…
Hi Mark,
Thank you for your excellent advice! Your tip may save us all one day when we end up stuck on a plane :-)
In all seriousness, I hadn’t considered the risk of damage to the plane until you mentioned it! Even if there would have been airport personnel (or police) on the plane, there would have been no way they could have prevented those customers from taking out their anger on the seats around them… It would have been very hard to get individuals accountable for that!
I would have just got off the plane. What were they trying to achieve by staying on it? RyanAir are blamed for many things, but surely they’re not responsible for Parisian fog!
People really, really need to stop whinging, and realise they are getting what they’re paying for.
However, if I were crew, I don’t think I would have got off the plane and locked up. I would have called security and let them deal with it. It’s beyond the call of duty to expect the air crew to deal with impromptu sit-ins.
Hi Ant, thank you for your comment.
I like your analysis. I agree that Ryanair can’t be blamed for bad weather conditions. I also agree that people should stop whining (…so much, although we don’t know exactly what happened on that plane and before). However, I have reservations towards your statement that customers are getting what they are paying for. As I mentioned in my reply to Ted’s comment above, cheap often comes with a price. Ryanair customers choose cheap, so they choose stripped-down service. However, Ryanair customers don’t choose bad service.
I think I could work on the same plane with you though :-) I think I would have tried everything to fix the situation there and then, but if all else failed, I would have called security as well. There is only so much you can do for a crowd of furious customers, and I would never risk being assaulted or spit upon (probably one of the reasons I’m not in the travel business). I have deep respect for all of us who do their best to serve travelers every day!
“With Ryanair you get what you pay for”, is what I hear often. Frankly I couldn’t disagree more. Why? Well firstly, take a look at EasyRyan’s prices when you book a ticket at the last minute. London to Dublin typically €150 for a last minute ticket. This is where the profit is made. At that level you’re paying close to full-service-airline prices but if anything goes “off-process” Ryanair’s approach remains strictly lo-cost and you’re left with no recourse, despite paying honest money.
Secondly, the passengers paid for a flight to Paris. Did they get this? No. They got a late flight to Belgium and were offered a coach to Paris. Why is this an acceptable process for lo-cost air? Imagine getting an international train service only to be told half way through your journey that there has been a track failure and they are diverting the train to an alternative station 200 miles away? Would you accept this? Even if you pay €29 for an advance purchase train ticket for a journey of many 100′s of kms, I’m willing to bet your expectations of the train would be much greater.
Airlines get away with events like this because lo-cost carriers have successfully decoupled passenger rights from service expectations by using the “ticket price” as an excuse to treat people like mugs, yet the price you pay may actually be quite significant, as I suspect it was for some of those passengers here. Lo-cost service, always, lo-cost price? not necessarily. So no, you don’t get what you pay for.
The anarchist in me says the passengers got off the plane too soon. Group action such as that taken by the passengers, similar to strike action in a way, only really bites when the crunch-point is reached. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had the time came for the plane to be elsewhere and still had the passengers on board. I fear that fate will provide us with this scenario before too long, as lets face it, this will only prompt a review of the revenue-protection processes of “The world’s favourite love-to-hate airline”.
Hi Rich, thanks for sharing your view on this story.
I understand your frustration! All of it. I have had my share in the past. However, if we take out the frustration from the equation, I think we should also conclude that customers are responsible for their decisions. Not for the service they get, but for the decisions. I think it is the customers’ responsibility to know that when they fly to Brussels South (to name just one example), they actually fly to Charlerloi, about 40 miles south. I also think it is the customers’ responsibility to compare prices, even if they have to book last-minute. If customers then refuse to pay an extra €29 to fly with a regular airline, I think it is their own choice and responsibility.
However, and this to me is the crucial part, customers never choose bad service! They may choose low-cost and agree with the corresponding stripped-down service, but they will never choose or should never accept bad service. Therefore every organization, including Ryanair, should do everything in their power to deliver what they promise. In this particular case, Ryanair couldn’t land in Paris. I don’t think any airline could have. So they arranged coaches to get their customers to Paris (actually, I assume Ryanair arranged the coaches). At that point it was the best they could to deliver what they promised: take their customers from point A to B at the agreed price.
As was mentioned in the comments above though, I think both Ryanair and the customers lost their temper and with that their ability to handle this situation in a humane way. There were too parties involved here. Unfortunately, both parties lost.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts with us, Rich. I appreciate your honest input to this discussion!