Flying from Majorca yesterday and rows two and three were closed but the rest were open. Nice flight though, plenty of air conditioning on, unlike other recent journeys where it seemed to be operated sparingly? Flight path took us via Waterford for some unknown reason?
Ryanair first six rows closed off due to "balancing the plane."
- Thread starter BOXtheFOX
- Start date
I have spent many years flying with Ryanair and I only noticed this particularly habit in relatively recent times (as in within the last five years). The very first time I saw it, they had not only blocked off the first six rows but had put a sign up indicating they were reserved for disabled passengers ... needless to say none of these ever showed up. While I can appreciate that weight distribution on a plane is a relevant concern and that RyanAir's approach leaves them little control over how the weight is distributed, I am inclined to suspect that this isn't the primary concern... If 2 or 4 rows at the front are all that need to be blocked off to ensure that the plane is balanced then I am either terribly worried by the habit of other users of Boeing planes who are placing the lives of all those Business Class passengers they seat at the front of the plane in terrible danger or I suspect that the reason is that it effectively reduces the cabin size and makes the 25 minute turn-arounds easier to achieve!!
M
mickman
Guest
it prob has somethign to do with saving fuel - u know the way ryanair are. i would never again travel with them i dont care how cheap they are . i dont like their service, i hate the way they start saying last call for a flight when its not leaving for another hour and their pilots will take off and land during any kind of weather just to get their on time bonus. never again
Sounds like he was contradicting himself a bit there?
Yeah. That happened the time I took an Aer Arann flight from Inverin to the Arann Islands a few years back. It was a small c. 8-10 seater (Cessna?) plane. And they had to arrange the bags carefully too and even send some on a later flight.
Yeah - I'm sure that serving the customer by having flights take off and land on time has nothing to do with it and that every other airline grounds plans when the weather is a bit inclement...
I dont know that much about the technical aspects of aviation but to get back to the OP if you have a concern you should ring the Irish Aviation Authority...www.iaa.ie.. they should be able to give you a definitive answer to this...
I've been told (by someone i believe actually does know the truth) that The reason they do it is indeed profiteering. Ryanair have been chargeing for seat selection, but cant get enough people to take it up to make as much as they would like. By making the number of available seats as low as they can on a flight, they make it more likely that families and couples will have to split up into different seats when they get on the flight.
This in turn "encourages" these customers and people who are watching them, to pay extra to select their seats the next time in order to make sure they can sit together. Therefore making Ryanair more money.
This in turn "encourages" these customers and people who are watching them, to pay extra to select their seats the next time in order to make sure they can sit together. Therefore making Ryanair more money.
Uh minion, Ryanair do not do pre-boarding seat selection... I think you might be thinking of Aer Lingus and FlyBe and several other operators flights with empty front rows because they charge extra for the privilege of sitting there.
A colleague of mine told me that they do this if the plane isn't full to save fuel. Seemingly, if the weight of the plane is centralised over the wings and not all at the front or back, the engine effort required is less and it saves fuel. No idea if it is true or not, but it sounds sensible
Alos heard of a Belgian airline that said it it going to deliberately fly a couple of miles slower and arrive 1-2 minutes later then scheduled as this will save them €1m in fuel per annum
Alos heard of a Belgian airline that said it it going to deliberately fly a couple of miles slower and arrive 1-2 minutes later then scheduled as this will save them €1m in fuel per annum
Sorry, meant Priority boarding didnt go so well. Seat selection is coming soon.
GoldCircle
Registered User
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There can be a very very minor fuel saving made if an aircraft is balanced absolutely perfectly, but it is generally so small that no one bothers shifting 12 or 18 passengers. Some machinery fares better than others.
Longer thinner planes (e.g. MD80 with rear mounted engines) have greater balance/trim sesnitivities that shorter wing mounted planes such as the 737-800.
For a 737-800 to have significant balance issues based on a few rows worth of passengers would be absolutely unthinkable.
It could be that Ryanair crams passengers in to the middle to save a euro or two (done on so many million flights per year, that's a saving of note), but it is more likely to do cabin operations (easier to sell over-priced junk to the pax) and faster turnaround (less cleaning) - both of which provide more significant returns.
Longer thinner planes (e.g. MD80 with rear mounted engines) have greater balance/trim sesnitivities that shorter wing mounted planes such as the 737-800.
For a 737-800 to have significant balance issues based on a few rows worth of passengers would be absolutely unthinkable.
It could be that Ryanair crams passengers in to the middle to save a euro or two (done on so many million flights per year, that's a saving of note), but it is more likely to do cabin operations (easier to sell over-priced junk to the pax) and faster turnaround (less cleaning) - both of which provide more significant returns.
brodiebabe
Registered User
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- 637
Paul Kilduff indicates in his book "Ruinair" that it aids the cabin crew when passeners are all seated together as is means they can intensively and quickly hawk more items to the passengers.
It's sure to help the speed of the clean up and make the turn arounds quicker.
It's sure to help the speed of the clean up and make the turn arounds quicker.
Ryanair's passenger stats up, load factor down
Tuesday, 6 May 2008 10:55
Ryanair said it carried 4.72 million passengers in April, a 15% increase on the same time last year, thanks to its growing route network.
However, Ryanair said its load factor - a measure of how well an airline is filling seats on its planes - was 79% last month, down from 83% a year earlier.
The airline said the load factor in April 2007 was boosted by Easter, which fell in March this year.
Above article highlights load factor issue.
Tuesday, 6 May 2008 10:55
Ryanair said it carried 4.72 million passengers in April, a 15% increase on the same time last year, thanks to its growing route network.
However, Ryanair said its load factor - a measure of how well an airline is filling seats on its planes - was 79% last month, down from 83% a year earlier.
The airline said the load factor in April 2007 was boosted by Easter, which fell in March this year.
Above article highlights load factor issue.
I sincerely doubt that load factor is measured by how cramped passengers are
The seats still exist and are available for sale up to a very short time before take off (probably something like 45 minutes). If they don't sell they can be blocked off but they still count as empty seats for the calculation of passenger load factor.