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Ryanair voted worst short-haul airline

Ryanair voted worst short-haul airline

Budget airline Ryanair has finished bottom in a study of short-haul airlines by Which?

John Fitzsimons

Motoring and Travel

John Fitzsimons
Updated on 20 December 2012

A survey by Which? Travel has seen Ryanair voted the worst short-haul airline in Europe.

Sixteen airlines were given scores out of five across a range of categories including the check-in process, seat allocation, baggage allocation and value for money.

And Ryanair came rock bottom with a score of just 34%.

Here's how the 16 airlines fared, with a selection of their scores:

Airline

Baggage allowance

Boarding arrangements

Cabin environment

Airline staff

Value for money

Customer score

Swiss International

5

5

4

5

4

82%

Turkish Airlines

5

4

4

4

4

78%

Lufthansa

5

4

4

4

3

75%

Aer Lingus

3

4

4

4

3

74%

KLM

5

4

4

4

3

67%

British Airways

5

4

4

4

3

67%

SAS Scandinavian Airlines

5

4

4

4

3

65%

TAP Portugal

5

3

4

4

3

64%

Air Malta

4

4

3

4

3

62%

Jet2.com

4

3

3

4

3

61%

FlyBe

3

4

4

4

3

59%

EasyJet

2

2

3

3

3

54%

Monarch

3

3

2

3

2

47%

Thomson Airways

3

3

2

3

2

45%

Thomas Cook Airlines

2

3

1

3

2

36%

Ryanair

1

1

2

2

2

34%

[SPOTLIGHT]Swiss topped the poll for the third straight year. It flies from London, Manchester and Birmingham to destinations such as Geneva and Zurich.

Ryanair complaints

Which? said it had received many complaints about Ryanair this year, particularly on the subject of added fees for paying by credit card or for reserving a seat. Other people claimed they were automatically opted into additional products (such as insurance) that they didn't want.

The budget airline has once again had a controversial year. It launched a mobile phone app to allow passengers to book on the go, yet while rivals offered similar apps for free, Ryanair's came with a £2.49 fee. Read Ryanair charging £2.49 for booking app.

And then in November Ryanair installed new credit card and admin charges, blaming the Office of Fair Trading. Check out Ryanair imposes new credit card and admin charges for more on this.

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