Fuel shortage for 3 acft in Spain ?

Much noise in the newspapers about an alleged fuel shortage experienced in Spain by 3 Ryanair aircraft on 26 July.
http://www.air-journal.fr/2012-08-15-enquete-sur-trois-atterrissages-a-sec-de-ryanair-554242.html
http://www.lesoir.be/actualite/monde/2012-08-14/l-espagne-ouvre-une-enquete-sur-les-atterrissages-d-urgence-de-ryanair-932103.php

Answer :
http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/madrid-diversions-to-valencia-26-july


Due to severe thunderstorms over Madrid on Thursday (26 July) Spanish air traffic control instructed a number of inbound aircraft (including 3 Ryanair aircraft) to divert to and hold over Valencia Airport. Having held over Valencia for 50 mins, 68 mins and 69 mins after their scheduled landing time in Madrid, Ryanair’s 3 aircraft (following standard industry safety procedures) requested air traffic control permission to land immediately as they reached their reserve fuel minimums, which allow each aircraft to operate for an additional 30 minutes (approx 300 miles) of flying.
All 3 aircraft landed normally with reserve fuel levels (of approx 30 mins or 300 miles of flying) remaining.

In short, the usual Ryanair brickbatting ... bullsh.t !

I don't see why is this bullsh*t. There are strict procedures for fuel situations like this. I am actually surprised that the aircrafts had enough fuel to circle on holding patterns for an hour (burning up considerably more than on cruising altitude). AFAIK when you are forced to switch to reserve fuel you have to declare fuel emergency. These are the rules.
So what exactly did ryanair wrong?

The point I wanted to make is just that Ryanair did nothing wrong - but that the newpapers are trying to bash Ryanair without any justification.

Oh sorry, I got it backwards

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/08/17/economia/1345200463.html


In an interview to "El Mundo" about the controversy surrounding Ryanair in recent days, the president of the airline noted that "the air operator's license is issued to Ryanair by the Irish civil aviation authority, not the Spanish. "
"The Ministry of Development can investigate us, but only Irish authority can punish us. You can only withdraw the license to Spanish airlines," he noted.

Upon investigation about the Irish company accused of to operating to the fuel limit, following the emergency landing that starred three of its aircraft at the airport of Valencia for lack of fuel, O'Leary said that promotion that the whole truth is not told.
"The aircraft arrived at the scheduled time to Madrid, with fuel still for 90, 98 and 99 minutes respectively. When asked for permission to land in Valencia, they still had 30 minutes of fuel. Neither aircraft missed safety regulations , at all times fulfilled the law. Neither pilots nor passengers or crew were under no risk, "he explained.

Moreover, the head of the leading low cost airline in Europe is of opinion that Ryanair has not a bad image in Spain, but has suggested that there are "a number of competitors, unions and regional and local politicians" who are "against our success. "
"The current growth of Ryanair demonstrates that his is not such a bad image, as demonstrated by the thousands of passengers we carry every day," he concluded.

A good summary of the events to be found here :

http://avherald.com/h?article=454af355&opt=0

atoutprix wrote:http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/08/17/economia/1345200463.html


In an interview to "El Mundo" about the controversy surrounding Ryanair in recent days, the president of the airline noted that "the air operator's license is issued to Ryanair by the Irish civil aviation authority, not the Spanish. "
"The Ministry of Development can investigate us, but only Irish authority can punish us. You can only withdraw the license to Spanish airlines," he noted.

Upon investigation about the Irish company accused of to operating to the fuel limit, following the emergency landing that starred three of its aircraft at the airport of Valencia for lack of fuel, O'Leary said that promotion that the whole truth is not told.
"The aircraft arrived at the scheduled time to Madrid, with fuel still for 90, 98 and 99 minutes respectively. When asked for permission to land in Valencia, they still had 30 minutes of fuel. Neither aircraft missed safety regulations , at all times fulfilled the law. Neither pilots nor passengers or crew were under no risk, "he explained.

Moreover, the head of the leading low cost airline in Europe is of opinion that Ryanair has not a bad image in Spain, but has suggested that there are "a number of competitors, unions and regional and local politicians" who are "against our success. "
"The current growth of Ryanair demonstrates that his is not such a bad image, as demonstrated by the thousands of passengers we carry every day," he concluded.

30 minutes reported while landing at valencia? That is very low although 30 minutes in an aircraft could mean anything (idle power, engines at climb/go around thrust). If the weather at valencia had deteriorated or the crew had to go around maybe once or twice with a possibility of a hold somewhere then that 30 minutes could be depleted fairly quickly.

30 minutes for an passenger jet is incredibly low, I mean would you risk driving on 30 minutes of fuel to your office while being affected by traffic, diversions and roundabouts? In this case you just call for your traffic services. In the case of ryanair it would probably be much more complicated.

http://www.ryanair.com/ie/news/official-valencia-fuel-report-confirms-ryanair-eu-ops-compliance-and-safety

Ryanair, Spain’s largest airline, today (20 Sept) released copies of the official IAA report* into the 3 Valencia fuel emergency procedures of 26 July last which confirm that all 3 Ryanair aircraft:
1. carried fuel in excess of flight plan fuel requirements
2. diverted to Valencia with more than final diversion fuel
3. correctly declared emergency procedure in accordance with EU Ops regulations
The IAA investigation report (which 2 Spanish AESA officials participated in) confirms conclusively that Ryanair’s 3 crewscorrectly “declared an Emergency in accordance with EU Ops”. Ryanair welcomes this report which conclusively disproves the recent false claims in the Spanish media that Ryanair’s aircraft carried less than minimum fuel and/or were in breach of EU regulations.

http://www.ryanair.com/doc/news/2012/iaa_report_valencia_EN.pdf