Ryanair 'more expensive than British Airways'

Ryanair is now more expensive on certain routes than full-service competitors such as British Airways, according to a report in The Sunday Times.

The paper identified ten routes for which the low-cost carrier charges more than BA – three of which were more expensive even before surcharges were added.

Researchers found that a family of four who travel to Ibiza in mid-August would pay £1,057 with Ryanair, compared to just £913.20 when flying with BA.

The flag carrier also came up trumps in cheap flights to Venice – charging £89.30 for a one-way trip over Christmas, against Ryanair's £109.52 – while the cost of a four-person skiing holiday to Salzburg next February was once again lower with BA.

After factoring in baggage surcharges and payment handling fees, Ryanair became the more expensive carrier on several other popular routes.

The Sunday Times noted that a passenger who travels with 20kg of luggage, pays for priority boarding and buys a snack and drink in-flight would pay an astonishing £194 in surcharges with Ryanair. That falls to just £31 with easyJet, and zero with BA.

Ryanair responded by insisting that 80 per cent of its passengers do not check-in luggage. "The comparison is unfair because it is not comparing like with like," a spokesman said.

© Cheapflights Ltd

Comments

[Sebastian@Dublin]

This is actually not the first time. I've seen Ryanair more expensive than regular airlines a few times already. I remember that they once introduced a scheme where the difference would be reimbursed but I cannot see this guarantee on Ryanair's website any more. Maybe they had to pay out too much money as a result of it and just abandoned the scheme...

[roman]

I think the Irish budget company is not as good as O'Leary is screaming everywhere. They really increase all their charges, trying to stay profitable I guess.

[Malcolm]

Its not only Ryanair and BA doing this. I recently needed to go to Amsterdam and easyJet was more expensive than KLM.

[David]

Ryanair are not cheap, they are just good at hiding their charges. E.g £10 credit card charge, £5 online checkin or £20 airport, £5 sandwiches on board etc. It is still a high performance jet so I do think people are being quite silly when they believe they can travel for hundreds of miles for a few pence!

Even look at Ryanair's response to this factual article: "its not fair". The only reason their passengers do not check in bags is because they are charged £40 to do so!

[P Fisher]

Has there been a legal challenge in the courts contesting the card charges based on per person instead of one charge per transaction? I would like to see the outcome of that!

Also what happened to all of the hype about the EEC demanding complete transparency on actually showing the true cost including all the "Stealth Charges" so we can all clearly see what each airline is charging?

Finally, I would seriously contest Ryanair's claim that "80% of their passengers do not have cases in the hold". This is not the case on any of their flights I have flown on!

[L. Doughty]

I've used Ryanair a lot over the last 4 years and I'm now going to look elsewhere for my flights. They are making it so difficult to do a booking and the cost is going up and up with all the stealth charges. I flew with them in March. My hold luggage was spot on 15 kilos but my handluggage was 1 and 1/2 pounds over. It hadn't mattered before, but suddenly they were weighing hand luggage too and I didn't know. I was told my hand luggage would have to go into the hold. When I tried to give it in I was told I'd have to pay a bill of £185. Luckily another passenger offered to let me put my one and a half pounds into their suitcase. (Ryanair didn't see. I know they wouldn't have allowed it).

On my next trip I tried to find the part on the site where you have to fill details in for the Spanish government. Neither me nor my daughter could find the relevent section. She did eventually, but it was 3 and 3/4 hours before my flight, so my details couldn't be accepted. The result was that I had to pay an additional £20 for them to do it at the airport. And now they want us to stand! Not on your life!

[Wiley]

With regard to having your hand baggage weighed and then being charged if it is a little over the limit, I would suggest that you request to see the certification for the scales being used. The demand payment for the transit of baggage is a retail sale by weight and therefore the scales MUST be certified, which of course they are not.

It is an offence to charge for a transaction based on weight using uncertified scales.