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RYANAIR

Ryanair vs Copenhagen mayor, round three

Danish politicians have rushed to the defence of Mayor Frank Jensen, who has been mocked as the "High Fare Mayor" on Twitter by Ryanair.

Ryanair vs Copenhagen mayor, round three
Flame wars. Image: Peter Hummelgaard/Twitter
The folks in Ryanair’s marketing department aren’t the only ones to have completed a Photoshop beginners’ course. 
 
After the budget Irish airline went after Copenhagen Mayor Frank Jensen in a pair of tweets, Jensen’s political allies have struck back.
 
 
Fellow Social Democrat Peter Hummelgaard wrote that “Ryanair has for the past few days attacked Frank Jensen with vulgar ads. We have made an equally vulgar response” and posted a photo of Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary fornicating with one of his jets:
Karina Lorentzen, an MP for the left-wing Socialist People’s Party, also threw herself into the flame war. She tweeted a direct response to Ryanair’s Marie Antoinette ad by placing O’Leary’s face on the former French queen’s body and having him declare “Let me keep my royal salary [and] let my staff work under… less royal conditions!”: 
“You want war? We get you war! Don’t mess with our unions,” Lorentzen warned. 
 
The tweets from both Hummelgaard and Lorentzen were shared by several other politicians. 
 
Ryanair's initial swipes at Jensen came in response to Jensen’s announcement on Sunday that he will not allow municipal employees to fly with Ryanair on official business, even if the airline offers the lowest available fare. 
 
“The City of Copenhagen does not accept social dumping. Therefore we don’t use firms like Ryanair or others that don’t offer their employees proper salaries and working conditions,” the mayor wrote on Facebook. 
 
“Our rules mean that we cannot enter contracts or buy goods from suppliers that do not pay proper salaries,” Jensen told Berlingske. 
 
Ryanair spokesman Ronan O’Keeffe said that Jensen’s decision gives preferential treatment to SAS, the Scandinavian airline partly owned by the Danish state. O’Keeffe added that Jensen is misinformed about Ryanair’s working conditions. 
 
“We are surprised by Mayor Jensen’s imprecise comments which don’t take into consideration the fact that Ryanair’s pilots and cabin personnel have high salaries, job security and already have a collective agreement with Ryanair,” he told Berlingske. 
 
Ryanair attempted to drive home that message with a more understated tweet on Thursday: 
The municipalities of Albertslund, Ballerup, Brøndby, Hvidovre, Ishøj, Ringsted, Roskilde and Tårnby have also declared that employees can only fly with airlines that have Danish collective bargaining agreements. 
 
On Wednesday, the Danish Labour Court (Arbejdsretten) set a date of June 15th for a final decision on whether Danish labour unions can carry out a legal strike against Ryanair at Copenhagen Airport. 
 
If the court determines that Ryanair is subject to Danish labour laws, it clears the way for a legal strike. If however the court rules that the airline should play by Irish rules, a strike would be illegal. 

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RYANAIR

UPDATE: Ryanair passenger jet makes emergency landing in Berlin over ‘fake bomb threat’

Polish police said Monday they were investigating a fake bomb threat that forced a Ryanair passenger plane travelling from Dublin to Krakow to make an emergency landing in Berlin.

UPDATE: Ryanair passenger jet makes emergency landing in Berlin over 'fake bomb threat'
A Ryanair flight making an emergency landing

The flight from Dublin to Krakow made the unexpected diversion after a reported bomb threat, German newspaper Bild Zeitung said.

“We were notified by the Krakow airport that an airport employee received a phone call saying an explosive device had been planted on the plane,” said regional police spokesman, Sebastian Glen.

“German police checked and there was no device, no bomb threat at all. So we know this was a false alarm,” he told AFP on Monday.

“The perpetrator has not been detained, but we are doing everything possible to establish their identity,” Glen added, saying the person faces eight years in prison.

With 160 people on board, the flight arrived at the Berlin Brandenburg airport shortly after 8 pm Sunday, remaining on the tarmac into early Monday morning.

A Berlin police spokesperson said that officers had completed their security checks “without any danger being detected”.

“The passengers will resume their journey to Poland on board a spare aeroplane,” she told AFP, without giving more precise details for the alert.

The flight was emptied with the baggage also searched and checked with sniffer dogs, German media reported.

The passengers were not able to continue their journey until early Monday morning shortly before 4:00 am. The federal police had previously classified the situation as harmless. The Brandenburg police are now investigating the case.

Police said that officers had completed their security checks “without any danger being detected”.

“The Ryanair plane that made an emergency landed reported an air emergency and was therefore immediately given a landing permit at BER,” airport spokesman Jan-Peter Haack told Bild.

“The aircraft is currently in a safe position,” a spokeswoman for the police told the newspaper.

The incident comes a week after a Ryanair flight was forced to divert to Belarus, with a passenger — a dissident journalist — arrested on arrival.

And in July last year, another Ryanair plane from Dublin to Krakow was forced to make an emergency landing in London after a false bomb threat.

READ ALSO: Germany summons Belarus envoy over forced Ryanair landing

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