Saturday, February 11, 2006

Ryanair Reality

I've never been a fan of reality television. 

Oh, sure, occasional I'll stop off to watch one of the shows, but it's sort of like watching a train wreck:  alternatively fascinating, scary, interesting and embarassing.  I never last watching the program for very long.

What I really don't want to watch is a reality show about an airline.  I do it every day, and I know what really happens out there.  I don't need some craftily edited piece to show me that there are some mean people in my industry; I've had to deal with their pettiness myself.  I don't need some soft music or lighting to bring a tear to my eye by an employee going the extra mile to help out someone; I work with those people and have been choked up my their thoughtfulness more times than I can remember.

However, nothing says "I gotta watch this" more than an expose'.  And apparently that's just what viewer will get with a behind-the-scenes look at Ireland's Ryanair.  Dirty planes, exhausted pilots and crew, and mistakes in the flightdeck are just part of what's being teased.  All this courtesy of two reporters who infiltrated the airline.

I don't know if this will be seen in the U.S., so if anyone can provide more information, or a synopsis after it runs, I'd be interested to hear about it.

I hate to be a cynic, but I'm guessing there's nothing in it that will surprise me.

 

Via Sandra.

 

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now what I really want to see, is a fly-on-the-wall look at Singapore Airlines - I wanna know just how those girls manage to look so darn fresh and awake all the time!!

Seriously, if the footage is unauthorised (i.e. not company 'PR approved') it could be interesting.. then again as you say it'll be edited to within an inch of it's life.

Knowing reporters and aviation, the flight deck 'mistakes' are probably minor abberations, that, in themselves aren't dangerous and that would likely be address in safety reporting.

But of course they sensationalise it and make the public go 'oh my god did you see what that pilot just did?!' - forgetting that Joe Bloggs has never actually flown a 737 himself, let alone even looked at the operating manuals...!

*rolls eyes*

Fly Girl said...

I know! How do those Singapore f/a's do it? After the end of a long day, I definitely look like it!

I've got some readers who've promised to keep an eye out for the Ryanair expose' and give us an update about how it is.

Stay tuned!

Anonymous said...

When is the Ryanair program running? What channel? This is the first I've heard of it.

"Dirty planes, exhausted pilots and crew...'

Frankly, it sounds like it could be my airline! ;-)

Anonymous said...

Hi - I saw the expose, and it was bad in parts - the Flight Attendants are clearly not trained well enough in safety procedures, being advised that "anyone seated in seat 1A will die on impact in a crash, so don't ask them for assistance." Additionally, their security seems very lax, with crew chastised for delaying flights when they check passports at international boarding.

But alot of it looked like standard issue crew whinging. I flew at UA and we all sat around moaning about the same long hours, short pay, zero respect.

Anonymous said...

Hi, it's Paul from IAG Blog here. I'm their UK correspondent and I broke the Ryanair thing on our pages last week. There is a lot of info here and Ryanair have published their correspondence on their own home page. We have received a lot of comments on our coverage - this topic has caught internaional imaginations!