A small section of Twitter was yesterday awash with schadenfreude after a top Ryanair executive’s complaint about a delayed flight prompted a flurry of outrage from its own customers.
Chief marketing officer, Kenny Jacobs, posted on LinkedIn about being stuck on a runway in Dublin “because of air traffic control shortages”, in a comment that was screen-grabbed and tweeted by his company’s official account.
Rather than eliciting agreement and calls for more action from the EU, angry Ryanair customers instead regaled Jacobs with their tales of woe at the hands of the company for which he works.
The Ryanair Twitter account was forced to switch to damage-limitation mode, apologising and posting links to the forms needed to make compensation claims.
That didn’t quite go to plan either.
One Ryanair customer recently took even more drastic action after experiencing delays - he got off the grounded plane via the emergency exit.
The incident occurred on New Year’s Day at Malaga airport, and saw the man throw open the emergency exit and clamber onto the wing of the plane, ensuring to bring along his hand luggage too.
Fernando del Valle Villalobos, who filmed the incident, wrote on Facebook: “After leaving London an hour late, arrive in Malaga and being left 30 more minutes on the plane (without any explanation from Ryanair)… this gentleman decided that the wasn’t going to wait any more, activated the emergency door and ready… he got out from the wing… surreal.”