Elementary human behaviour can’t be sacrificed at the altar of low cost airlines competition, says Spirtzis

“The elementary human behaviour and the need of the citizens can’t be sacrificed at the altar of completion and profiteering of the low cost airlines and low social responsibility” stated Transport Minister Christos Spirtzis referring to the incident involving Ryanair’s London-Thessaloniki flight on Friday that due to the extreme weather conditions prevailing at Macedonian International Airport landed at the airport of Timisoara in Romania.

The minister ordered the responsible authorities to launch an investigation into the circumstances of the incident and if the provided procedures have been followed.

According to a ministry announcement, an Aegean Airlines aircraft was leased at Spirtzis’ initiative to bring back to Greece 89 passengers of the flight RYR8582 of Ryanair from Timisoara. It is noted that according to the existing European regulation the specific incident is characterised “a special incident” and each airline is responsible to take care of the passengers. “Ryanair has chosen, in case of a problem during the landing procedure, as first alternative airport the international airport of Timisoara and as second Athens International Airport” said the ministry adding that “It is obvious that the airline’s selection to choose Timisoara airport which is thousands of kilometres away from the passengers’ destination instead of any other of the many Greek airports that were very close to Thessaloniki, had to do with the low cost airline’s priority policy”.

Finally, the ministry thanked Aegean Airlines that responded immediately to the request of the political authorities for an extraordinary flight that put an end to the citizens’ inconvenience.

Ryanair in an announcement on Saturday apologised over the deviation of the flight from London to Thessaloniki on January 4 that landed at Timisoara airport due to the adverse weather conditions that prevailed at Macedonia Airport of Thessaloniki.

In an announcement the low cost airline said “The aircraft landed normally at Timisoara and our clients either were transferred by bus to Thessaloniki or they waited for an alternative flight. Those who chose to take advantage of the bus transfer were offered overnight stay at a Timisoara hotel. Ryanair offers its sincere apology for the deviation of this flight which was completely out of our control”