Blog by Michael Clay

Are airlines such as Easyjet and Ryannair trying to show how powerful they are? Are their tactics like Bully Boys?

Both of these airlines have stopped flying to Warsaw, the capital of Poland, and with the result that thousands of Polish nationals as well as many hundreds of business men are unable to fly there from their regular departure points, unless they use BA or Lot.

This situation is abominable and has come about as a result of Warsaw air services asking these airlines for an increase in service charges.  Easyjet and Ryannair both appear to have said they will not pay extra and threatened to withdraw from Warsaw. Clearly Warsaw air services assumed this was an idle threat, but the reality is that both airlines have withdrawn completely from Warsaw.

This has caused the loss of many jobs and a great deal of inconvenience among passengers who have relied on the service and the departure times. Perhaps both parties expected the other to cave in and come to an agreement. This has simply not happened.

When I contacted Easyjet they informed me that they had written to ALL of their regular passengers and asked them if they would pay an extra 7 Euros and the answer they got was NO. Now I don't believe this is correct as my partner and I fly to Warsaw 104 times each every year and must therefore be considered a regular passenger, NO contact was made with us. I therefore do not believe any of these matters were raised with their regular passengers at all.

I have spoken to HANNA GRONKIEWICZ-WALTZ, Mayor of Warsaw about this when she visited London last month, but she did not seem to be aware of the problem at that time.

I hope this can be resolved as Easyjet and Ryannair have been responsible for many new businesses and many new jobs being created in Warsaw over the past five years. Warsaw became a major city of Poland within the International business community as a result of the ease with which one could travel there.

Comments are invited, especially as we have just seen Ryannair use these same bully tactics at Manchester airport this week.