Fun Online Polls: Man-made climate change & Have you turned on the central heating yet?

The results to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

Are this year's strong hurricanes and Indian monsoon evidence of man-made climate change?

Yes - 10%
No - 90%

Thanks to all 114 who took part and 8 who re-Tweeted. I'm with the majority on this. It'd be bloody embarrassing if it turned out to be true.

Rapscallion in the comments linked to this fine article.
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Sticking with the weather, the Daily Mash republished their article on central heating, as it seems to do this time every year*.

So that's this week's Fun Online Poll:

"Have you turned on the central heating yet?"

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

* One recurring article we haven't seen this year is Ryanair switching to its winter schedule and blaming the reduction in the number of flights on high airport taxes. They've got themselves in to a whole different mess this year.

RyanAir's tried and tested press release gets its annual outing

From Scotland Herald:

RYANAIR chief Michael O'Leary warned Air Passenger Duty was strangling growth at Prestwick Airport as the airline unveiled plans to slash its summer schedule at the hub by a third...

Yup, they quite sensibly reduce the number of their scheduled flights every year at the end of the holiday season, and they always blame it on Air Passenger duty.

Funny how they never issue a press release at the start of the holiday season to explain why they are increasing the number of scheduled flights, even though APD is still there.

For the last few years' episodes, click http://markwadsworth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/how-years-fly-by.html">here.

How the years fly by...

I just remembered that I hadn't done my obligatory annual post on Ryanair reducing the number of its flights as a protest against Air Passenger Duty.

Of course, this only applies to the winter season, when business is quiet anyway. There's never the equal and opposite fanfare in spring when all the flights commence again.

So I checked, and to my horror, I realised that the last time I did this round up was three years ago, see here for 2008 - 2010.

So just to catch up...

2013

No-frills airline Ryanair says it will cut fares as well as some flights this winter to help keep its profits up.

The Dublin-based carrier says increased competition and Europe's continued economic problems were having an impact on fares and the amount of money it makes per passenger.

That write-up doesn't blame everything on Air Passenger Duty, maybe even the newspapers have got bored with rehashing the same old Ryanair press release every year?

2012

"Ryanair objects to the Spanish government's decision to double airport taxes at both Madrid and Barcelona airports," said Michael O'Leary, Ryanair chief executive, "Sadly, this will lead to severe traffic, tourism and job cuts at both airports this winter."

He added that the cuts would cause a "combined loss of 2.3 million passengers and over 2,000 jobs at Madrid and Barcelona El Prat airports". The reductions to services – which will amount to 492 fewer flights each week – will be made from November.

2011

Michael O'Leary's airline, Ryanair, is to make sweeping cuts to its winter services at a number of UK airports, including Prestwick and Edinburgh in Scotland, and Stansted Airport in Essex. The move, announced earlier this month, means that 9 of 32 destinations from Edinburgh, and 3 of 15 from Prestwick, will not be available during winter 2011.

Given that Michael O'Leary is a vocal critic of the Air Passenger Duty, it should come as no surprise that Ryanair has cited the tax as the impetus for the winter flight cull.

"Tax flights, not hotels, suggests Rocco Forte Hotels boss"

From The Telegraph:

Rocco Forte said increasing Air Passenger Duty by £1 per flight could recoup a significant proportion of what is now raised by VAT on hotel rooms, cutting costs for British holidaymakers and encouraging foreign travellers to stay longer once in Britain.

"Visitor numbers to Britain have fallen from 33 million to 29.5 million since 2007," Mr Forte said, in an interview with Telegraph Travel. "That represents around £2 billion in lost revenue each year, going by Visit Britain's own statistics, or roughly equivalent to what VAT on hotel rooms raises.

"I understand that the Government needs to raise tax, but VAT on hotel rooms has nothing to do with consumption as the rooms are there whether occupied or not – it's just a tax grab. A more sensible way of raising money would be increasing APD by £1. There are far more plane seats than hotel beds, and it would raise money, too. No one will notice £1 on top of their plane ticket, but £12 or more on top of the cost of a hotel room is putting off domestic and business travellers."

APD is also imposed by authorities in the United States, but is resisted by airlines here. "Any additional taxes on flying are unnecessary and ill-timed," said Michael O'Leary, who manages Ryan Air in Europe.

OMG is it that time of the year already?

29 June 2010:

Ryanair cuts flights in row over tourist tax. Budget airline Ryanair is to slash its flights by almost a fifth. It will carry two million fewer passengers this winter. The cutbacks include a 17 per cent reduction in services at Stansted airport, where the Irish no-frills carrier will be handling 1.5 million fewer passengers than last winter.

Ryanair will also cut winter flights at most of its other UK bases, except Edinburgh and Leeds Bradford. Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary cited the “damaging” Air Passenger Duty airport departure tax as a reason for the reduction...

21 July 2009:

Budget airline Ryanair has announced a reduction in its services at Stansted Airport, blaming higher charges. Ryanair will reduce the number of aircraft it runs at the airport by 40% in its winter schedule, and will cut the number of flights by 30%, it said...

The company said that Stansted was one of its most expensive bases, and added that an increase in air passenger duty tax was also a factor in its decision. The airline operated 40 aircraft from Stansted in the summer, but said this would fall to 24 this winter.

July 17 2008:

Ryanair, the cut-price Irish airline, today announced it will withdraw nearly a third of its aircraft from London's Stansted airport and suspend operations at seven other European airports because of higher fuel costs and airport fees. Michael O'Leary, chief executive at Ryanair, said his airline would operate 28 aircraft out of Stansted, down from 40.

It is the second straight year that Ryanair has reduced its activities at Stansted for its October to March winter period...

What would you do if you were he?

Much to the dismay of some Guardian readers, Michael O'Leary is refusing to stump up compensation for hotels, steaks and San Miguels for stranded Ryanair passengers. The EU regulations couldn't be clearer about the fact he should cough up though. They also provide that:

"The sanctions laid down by Member States for infringements of this Regulation shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive."

'Equalityforall' over on CIF seems to think so too:

"If they refuse to comply with pertinent legislation, their license should be revoked. I hope the EU bankrupts them and their boss should be jailed."

Well, Mr O'Leary has challenged the Irish regulators to do just that, hasn't he? Then let's hope they've implemented a more "effective" sanction than the UK has. If the Civil Aviation Authority have a crack over here, the maxiumum fine Ryanair can expect is a very "dissuasive" £5,000. The Guardian quotes O'Leary as saying: "...why exactly are the airlines expected to be reimbursing people's hotels, meals and everything else when the governments are the ones who made a balls of this?"

Quite.

What a difference a year makes ...

July 17 2008:

Ryanair, the cut-price Irish airline, today announced it will withdraw nearly a third of its aircraft from London's Stansted airport and suspend operations at seven other European airports because of higher fuel costs and airport fees. Michael O'Leary, chief executive at Ryanair, said his airline would operate 28 aircraft out of Stansted, down from 40.

It is the second straight year that Ryanair has reduced its activities at Stansted for its October to March winter period...

21 July 2009:

Budget airline Ryanair has announced a reduction in its services at Stansted Airport, blaming higher charges. Ryanair will reduce the number of aircraft it runs at the airport by 40% in its winter schedule, and will cut the number of flights by 30%, it said...

The company said that Stansted was one of its most expensive bases, and added that an increase in air passenger duty tax was also a factor in its decision. The airline operated 40 aircraft from Stansted in the summer, but said this would fall to 24 this winter.

Ryan Air

Via Christina Speight.

Shabbat shalom

Friday funnies from the FT:
If that doesn't have you rolling about in the aisles, how about this:

People saving into a workplace pension have seen the value of their assets fall by a quarter since the start of the credit crunch. Defined contribution schemes have fallen by £140bn since September 2007, new figures from Aon Consulting show. They now have a value of just £410bn, as of the end of January. Older workers have been hit harder by the falls, as their pensions have less time to recover before they start drawing an income from them. Those approaching retirement and aged 55-65 will see a 30 to 36 per cent drop in their pension...

Seriously now, is there anybody out there who still believes that paying into a huge great slush fund that we laughingly refer to as 'a pension plan' is a sensible investment? How about using the £50 billion annual cost of the tax relief to scrap VAT; cut income tax by ten percent or raise the personal allowance by £5,000 or something? Y'know, leave people with higher after tax incomes so that they can make their own investment decisions?

"Ryanair withdraws 30% of planes from Stansted"

Obviously those slots at Stansted can't be worth very much, otherwise Ryanair would be doing a BMI.

This is chucklesome: Last month, Mr O'Leary [Ryanair boss] said that high oil prices would drive “crappy competitors” out of the airline business.

And why are the slots at STN (which is a super little airport, acres of marble and glass) worth so much less than at LHR or LGW? The answer is, there's no direct train from London or Stratford to STN, you have to take a coach (cheap but stressful) or a taxi (expensive).

"Sarkozy sues Ryanair over advert"

For verily, the French are humourless gits of the worst kind.

NB - Carla Bruni may be Italian-born, but she grew up in France. It says so here.