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Ryanair breaks the law

Michael O’Leary When Ryanair employees were on strike, Ryanair's boss - Michael O’Leary - told the press viciously: ‘We will not pay for flights on other airlines. We cannot afford to pay the high costs of our competitors.’ For 2 reasons it is rubbish that Ryanair cannot pay for re-booking.

Ryanair can pay

First, carriers have a legal obligation to get passengers to their destinations within a reasonable amount of time, even if that would imply that travelers need to be re-booked on other airlines. Second, Ryanair is a very profitable carrier thanks...
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Airlines
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Unwanted sex up in the air

Sxual assaultIn-flight sexual assault is punishable in the USA by up to 10 years in prison plus fines and mandatory restitution. But airlines are not mandated to report and record the incidence of in-flight sexual abuse. Therefore, victims cannot directly and timely report the crimes to law enforcement.

Reporting procedures

What's more, airlines have 4-5 step reporting procedures in place. They involve a flight attendant, the captain, the airline ground crew, and the airline station manager. Those procedures frustrate most investigations. As a result, police do not usually meet the victim, perpetrator, and witnesses at...
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Safety and Security
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How important is your privacy to Marriott?

Marriott StarwoodThe data breach at Marriott is not the biggest. The Yahoo breach in 2013 was larger. Yahoo lost data of 3 billion users, whereas the Marriott case involves 500 million customers. Since 2014 (!) there has been unauthorized access to the Starwood network.

Stolen data

For approximately 327 million guests, the information includes some combination of name, mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, date of birth, and gender. For some, the information also includes payment card numbers and expiration dates. Although the card numbers were encrypted and 2...
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Hotels
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Pilot errors

Air FrancJan-Pierre Otelli's booke flight 447 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009. The causes of the plane crash are a sequence of pilot errors from 1 of the 2 co-pilots in the cockpit. This concludes Jean-Pierre Otelli, a pilot and an expert on aviation safety. He published volume 5 of Pilot Errors in October 2011.

Black boxes

His conclusion is based on data from the black boxes that were recovered 2 years after the crash. However, not...
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News, Safety and Security
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American’s fleet and management outdated

Doug ParkerUsually, airlines say that safety is their top priority. American Airlines, however, seems to have changed this mantra. Departing exactly on time is now American's highest priority as a result of a new personnel management system.

Top priority: pushback on time

American's boss Doug Parker believes that “the most important thing to customers is that we deliver on our commitment to leave on time and get them to the destination as they have scheduled.” Therefore, American introduced a new points-based attendance and performance policy. It assigns flight attendants points for various...
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News
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When should you buy a ticket?

Everybody wants to know what the best time is to buy your ticket. Momondo - a Danish online travel agency - claims to know it. You should book tickets for intra-European flights about 1 month prior to departure because then fares are 38% cheaper compared to the most expensive moment. Dutch travelers, who fly to a destination outside Europe, should book 5 months out to enjoy a potential benefit of 37%.

Day of departure

The day on which you depart also affects the ticket price. Flights from the Netherlands to...
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Fares
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