Ryanair challenges European airlines on punctuality, baggage, cancellations

Budget airline Ryanair has accused Air Malta and a number of international airlines of manipulating figures to hide their "abysmal punctuality, lost baggage and cancellation statistics".

It called on the airlines to admit they were hiding the true statistics, adding that they were doing so because they could not compete with its "industry-leading service with the least lost bags, the fewest cancellations and the best on-time record of any major European airline".

The airline made the call after the Association of European Airlines admitted it no longer published statistics as they "caused... a great deal of grief" in terms of negative publicity.

Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said: "Ryanair delivers Europe's guaranteed lowest fares, least lost bags, best on-time performance and fewest cancellations and we continue to highlight the abysmal customer service performance of high fares airlines such as Air Malta, Air France, BA and SAS. By refusing to publish up-to-date information, the AEA is allowing their low service airline members to ignore passengers."

When asked for its reaction, the national carrier said: "Air Malta refrains from commenting on a decision taken by AEA regarding any statistics the association deems should be published or not."

It said Ryanair was not a member of AEA and this was not the first time it made such a misleading statement on Air Malta and other AEA member airlines.

The national airline said its track record in punctuality, completion of flights and, especially, baggage handling remained among the best in Europe. Ryanair's only intention was to undermine Air Malta's consistently good operation performance, it added.

It was also difficult to confirm the accuracy of the statistics because in its "usual cavalier fashion", Ryanair did not say which period they covered, Air Malta said.

The spat comes as Ryanair was forced to apologise to EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou for depicting him as Pinocchio in adverts that were published in January and February in two British newspapers.

In the adverts, Ryanair featured a picture of Sir Stelios with a long nose protruding from his face above the words: "EasyJet's - Mr Late Again". The adverts asked Sir Stelios to "stop hiding the truth" about flight delays, saying EasyJet should resume publishing weekly details of on-time performance.

Ryanair has now agreed to pay damages and ran adverts in the same newspapers apologising. Both the airline's flamboyant founder Michael O'Leary and the airline itself "unreservedly apologised" for including Sir Stelios's picture in the advert and suggesting that he was lying about the matter.