RYANAIR has finished bottom of a travel survey ranking short-haul airlines operating in Britain.
It is the sixth year in a row that the Irish airline has propped up the table of the Which? Travel survey.
The consumer champion said cancelled flights due to strike action and changes to baggage policies were among passengers’ grievances.
However Ryanair described the results of the survey of 7,901 Which? members as ‘worthless’ and ‘irrelevant’.
'Too many rules'
Passengers gave the budget carrier the lowest possible rating for boarding, seat comfort, food and drink, and cabin environment, leaving it with an overall customer score of 40 per cent.
The airline made three changes to its baggage policies last year, with one passenger telling Which?: “There are too many rules. I worry about getting caught with hidden costs.”
Ryanair also cancelled the flights of thousands of passengers in the second half of last year due to strike action by pilots and cabin crew.
Which? says the airline has refused to pay passengers compensation, while raking in £1.75bn last year from ‘extras’ such as assigned seating and priority boarding,
Calculator needed
“Airfares might seem to be getting cheaper, but only if you don’t fancy sitting with your family and children or taking even a small cabin bag on-board,” said Which? Travel editor Rory Boland.
“Increasingly you need a calculator to work out what the final bill will be, especially with Ryanair.
“It has spent the last two years cancelling thousands of flights, ruining hundreds of thousands of holidays and flouting the rules on compensation as well.
“The results of our survey show passengers are fed up.
“They should switch to one of their rivals, who prove that budget prices don’t have to mean budget service.”
Europe's No. 1 airline
Ryanair replied to Which? Travel’s findings by saying 90 per cent of schedules remained operational on strike days and its bag policy has been simplified by recent changes.
A Ryanair spokesperson told the Sun: “The survey of almost 8,000 Which? members is totally unrepresentative and worthless compared to Ryanair’s 141m customers,” adding that “Ryanair is Europe’s No. 1 airline with the lowest fares, with an average fare of just €39, a fraction of the high fares charged by Which’s ‘recommended’ airlines.”
They added: "This year Ryanair will carry 141m customers, a 78 per cent increase over the 79m we carried six years ago, so these irrelevant ratings don’t reflect real passenger choices, which is the only survey which matters.”
Aurigny (81 per cent), Swiss Airlines (80 per cent) and Jet2 (75 per cent) were the highest-scoring short-haul carriers in the survey.
