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iSSUE 642
03-09 february 2012
Ryanair faces D-day
Legionnaires’ deaths Two pensioners lost their lives on Tuesday and Wednesday after an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease struck the resort of Calpe. p7
Need new windows or doors?
by louise clarke
RYANAIR’S CASE against AENA Alicante’s forced use of air bridges goes to the Alicante Court of Appeal next Tuesday. Due to the impending hearing, RTN was invited to attend a press conference with Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary to get his take on the situation which, if the court rules against the company, will see the withdrawal of 300 flights and the loss of 1.5 million passengers and 1,500 jobs. The airline chief told RTN: “If the court backs our appeal, we will reverse the decision immediately and by the end of February all those flights will be back on sale on the website for the summer months.” He added: “We don’t spend money on expensive PR and marketing as we like to keep our costs low and our flights cheap, but when we need to make a noise, we will do and that is what we are doing here today.”
Lu x - a l a re o f f e r i n g F REE fi t t i n g f o r t h e fi r s t 2 5 c u s t om e r s ! S e e t h e i r ad ve r t on p43
Make this Valentine’s Day a Smartphone Day With a little heart and help from technology, individuals can use their smartphones to easily plan for this romantic time. p44
Aunty Virus
More of your technical questions and problems are answered in this weekly feature. p58
Michael O’Leary
BLACKMAIL Currently Ryanair has eleven
bases in Spain and fly to 22 airports with more than 500 routes carrying 34 million passengers. They are expecting delivery of eleven new planes direct from Boeing later this year and O’Leary stated that he plans to capitalise on the recent bankruptcy of Spanair by using some of those new aircraft on the lucrative Barcelona – Alicante route. But only if the air bridge decision is overturned. When RTN asked what he thought to the allegations that he was ‘blackmailing’ the airport company into submission by his claims he said: “How can you blackmail a state run organisation like AENA? These are not heavy handed tactics because you just cannot do that to AENA. The truth of the matter is they don’t give a s**t about this. All they care about is getting the money back on that great big cathedral of an airport terminal that was built to please some politician.” Continued on page 3