www.ryanair.com

Ryanair has become caught up in dispute over a fake Twitter account, which has been claimed to be from the carrier and has been abusing passengers and bloggers. The apparent official account was used to make fun of passengers, with comments saying that passengers ‘smell like urine’ and described most of them as stupid.

Initially, Ryanair confirmed that their marketing team set up several Twitter accounts for promotions. They also seemed to claim the account which offended so many people. Dara Brady, the Deputy Head of Sales and Marketing at Ryanair, said that the carrier was officially running their presence on Twitter. Outrage of confusion spread around the website, with users reacting to the abusive comments.

However, Stephen McNamara, the spokesman for Ryanair, has confirmed that the offensive account was not one officially run by Ryanair. He said that the airline did set up several Ryanair accounts that are route specific. They set up these accounts on Twitter in order to highlight the low fare deals from the carrier, he continued, and they have closed down all of these profiles now.

He added that the airline is aware that many profiles related to Ryanair on Twitter have engaged in denigrating and abusive comments towards their passengers and services, and these profiles don’t have anything to do with the carrier at all. Ryanair said that the Twitter sites they did own were @ryanair_stansted, @ryanair_dub, as well as others. They did not open the @ryanaironline account.

The account was set up only within one week of Ryanair attacking bloggers who questioned the security and structure of the carrier’s website. The airline said then that their policy is not to waste energy and time corresponding with bloggers, and that they can confirm this won’t happen again.

Visit www.ryanair.com for more information about the airline.