Airline takes unruly passenger to court

There has been a recent plague of drunk, buffoonish, sometimes violent, behaviour on commercial aircraft.

Often the miscreants get a slap on the wrist, or a good behaviour bond.

In Europe, however, low-cost carrier Ryanair has had enough of the idiocy of buttheads.

Ryanair is taking action against a passenger it says forced a pilot to divert a flight.

It has started legal proceedings against the passenger it claims disrupted a Dublin to Lanzarote flight, which had to be diverted to Portugal, news hub Travel Mole reports.

Ryanair is seeking €15,000 (around $25,000 in Aussie money) in compensation to cover the cost of diverting the flight. The passenger has not been named. 

It filed the lawsuit in Dublin’s circuit court claiming "inexcusable and completely unacceptable" behaviour.

The damages it seeks are for overnight accommodation and related expenses given to passengers due to the diversion to Porto.

Ryanair said it will continue to take "decisive action" against other unruly behaviour.

The incident led to 160 passengers "facing unnecessary disruption and lost a full day of their holiday".

“It is unacceptable that passengers - many of whom are heading away with family or friends to enjoy a relaxing summer holiday - are suffering unnecessary disruption and reduced holiday time,” a Ryanair spokesperson said.

Bravo Ryanair.

Pilots ready to strike over pay claim

Bad news for anyone booked to fly on Irish airline Aer Lingus over the next couple of weeks.

It seems Aer Lingus has not been employing enough pilots - and has been relying on them to do overtime to keep planes in the air.

Now, as part of proposed strike action, Aer Lingus pilots will start work-to-rule action from Wednesday, meaning they will decline overtime work or any out-of-hours duties.

As a result, the airline expects to cancel up to 20% of flights, news portal Travel Mole reports.

The work-to-rule action could potentially represent over 40 flights a day scrapped.

The airline operates an average of 220 flights a day during the summer season.

Donal Moriarty, chief corporate affairs officer for Aer Lingus, said: “Impacted passengers will be contacted and advised of cancellations and given their options in terms of refund, re-accommodation or voucher.”

Pilots are taking action over a requested pay increase of nearly 24%.

The airline has offered just over half of this.

The pilots’ union say their demand is the equivalent of real terms inflation since they last had a pay rise in 2019.

The airline’s short-haul Europe schedule is likely to be most at risk, Travel Mole reported.

“Deplorable” airline passenger banned for life

Many frequent flyers would have come across someone like Jay Dalziel at one time or other.

Dalziel went ape shit on a recent flight on leisure airline Jet2 and has been banned for life following a "violent" in-flight incident, news portal Travel Mole reports.

Dalziel, 19, from Motherwell in Scotland, acted in a ‘"deplorable and violent" fashion, causing a Glasgow to Tenerife flight to be diverted to Shannon Airport in Ireland.

He was then taken into custody - missing out on his holiday.

Dalziel displayed "disruptive and aggressive" behaviour shortly after take-off.

It escalated to the point of allegedly physically attacking Jet2.com cabin crew other customers.

After touching down at Shannon Airport, Garda officers boarded the flight and took him into custody.

Video published online captured Garda officers removing a topless man from the plane. He was reportedly seen screaming as he was handcuffed and hauled off the flight.

Jet2 immediately banned him for life.

The airline also plans to take action to recover costs incurred by the diversion, estimated at a five-figure sum.

A standby aircraft and crew were then flown to Shannon Airport to take customers to Tenerife.

Jet2 apologised to customers for the inconvenience.

Phil Ward, MD of Jet2, said: “This is one of the worst cases of disruptive passenger behaviour that we have ever witnessed, and we would like to apologise to all colleagues and customers onboard for what they had to experience.

"It is a disgrace that hardworking customers, families and colleagues should be subjected to such appalling behaviour and we will vigorously pursue Mr Dalziel for all the costs that we incurred as a result of this diversion, as well as banning him for life."

Irish police said: ""Gardaí met the aircraft and arrested the man under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997. He is currently detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at a Garda station in County Clare. Investigations are ongoing."

Calls for cash to remain king in Australia

Australia should follow in Ireland's footsteps to ensure consumers can access and use cash, a lobbying group says.

Ireland is mandating cash acceptance by supermarkets and pharmacies.

There is only one way to ensure cash is widely available to everyone who needs it - by forcing large and important retailers to accept cash, says Jason Bryce, spokesperson for the Cash Welcome campaign..

This cost-free initiative sends a signal that Australia is not going cashless and the banking and retail industries must act to support the distribution of cash, the organisation says.

"Australia must follow Ireland, France, [countries in] Europe and many states and cities in the USA and mandate cash acceptance," says Bryce. "Already too many people are having trouble accessing and using cash.

"The cash industry is in crisis because of the uncertainty around the future of cash in Australia.

"There is only one way to guarantee a strong cash distribution system - and that is to ensure that cash is widely available and used in the community.

"Retailers selling food and essential groceries must accept cash to ensure that everyone is included in our economy and all communities have cash available when required."

See https://www.change.org/BankingAndCashGuarantee

A different option for flying between the UK and Canada

 

Don't trust Air Canada in case they lose your bags?

There is another option for flying between the UK and Canada. Canadian carrier Air Transat has unveiled an upgraded summer 2024 transatlantic flight schedule from the UK and Ireland.

It is offering passengers more opportunities to explore Canada next northern summer, Travel Mole reports.

From May 2024, Air Transat will be offering twice-daily transatlantic flights to Toronto, and daily flights to Montréal, from London Gatwick Airport.

It will also continue its weekly direct service to Québec City from Gatwick - the only UK air link to the city.

Air Transat is also increasing flights from other regional airports in the UK and Ireland with an increase in flights from Glasgow, Manchester and Dublin to Toronto.

Overall, Air Transat will offer up to 43 direct transatlantic flights every week from the UK and Ireland to destinations across Canada.

London Gatwick to Toronto economy return fares start from (around $840 per person).

Sonia Kurek, Air Transat commercial director for UK & Ireland, said: “We’re delighted to offer more choice and flexibility than ever before for summer 2024.

“We’re confident that Air Transat will be the airline of choice to Canada for many passengers next summer.”