Road Warrior: Hangry passengers in the skies

Food or no food on board? Busy week in Ireland, and Ryanair take on Ukraine

British Airways certainly know how to annoy their passengers lately. The company ended the on-board free food service for short haul European flights on January 11th. It was replaced by snack foods and sandwiches supplied by Marks & Spencer and paid for by passengers.

Now passengers are again furious as BA is not getting the stocking right. Planes are running out of food and hungry passengers are venting their anger on social media. They tell tales of planes running out of food before half the passengers are served, or worse, on a flight from Innsbruck last week there were only three sandwiches for 110 passengers. If you are flying BA in Europe, bring a picnic.

On the other side of the Atlantic, American Airlines are bringing back free food in economy, following their rival Delta. From May 1st the phased introduction will begin on trans-continental flights. Passengers will be offered continental breakfast on morning flights and a sandwich or wrap, crisps and cheese plate for other meals.

Busy week for comings and goings

This week is the busiest of the year so far at Dublin Airport, where 376,000 passengers will arrive and depart to the sound of Irish music and a green airport. Aer Lingus are expecting to carry a third more passengers on transatlantic services this week. On a smaller scale, Cork is expecting 30,000 passengers over the weekend.

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Ryanair have lift-off in Ukraine

The largest country in Europe, Ukraine, will come into the range of the largest airline in Europe, Ryanair, in October. The 34th base for Ryanair will operate 11 routes to the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, Poland and Germany, making 42 million Ukrainians more mobile.