Kenny Jacobs, the airlines chief marketing officer, took to social media on Tuesday morning bemoaning his flight to Dublin being delayed for more than two hours
A Ryanair boss got a taste of his own medicine after taking to Twitter to complain about his delayed flight – sparking an instant and inevitable social media backlash.
Kenny Jacobs, the airlines chief marketing officer, took to social media on Tuesday morning bemoaning his flight to Dublin being delayed for more than two hours.
Mr Jacobs hit out at what he described as the EU’s failure to deal with air traffic control staff shortages while sitting impatiently in the airport lounge.
But his Twitter timeline was soon filled with disgruntled Ryanair passengers giving him a piece of their minds, with one telling the self-proclaimed ‘bad boy’ of marketing to ‘read the room’ – following a difficult year for the low budget airline.
Posting on careers-site LinkedIn at 7.15am, he wrote: ‘Sitting on runway in Dublin on flight that should have left at 0650 but will leave after 0830 because of Air Traffic Control staff shortages in Europe.
‘The worst summer ever for delays and cancellations across all airlines and more needs to be done by EU. It’s bad for tourism, business travel and will mess up the hard earned holidays of many families.’
One Ryanair customer quickly replied on Twitter, writing: ‘I have sat on Ryanair flights countless times and experienced delays with no idea of projected departure times.
Mr Jacobs hit out at what he described as the EU’s failure to deal with air traffic control staff shortages while sitting impatiently in the airport lounge
But his Twitter timeline was soon filled with disgruntled Ryanair passengers giving him a piece of their minds, with one telling the self-proclaimed ‘bad boy’ of marketing to ‘read the room’ – following a difficult year for the low budget airline
‘No water (unless I paid Euro 2 for it) and a general feeling of helplessness. Tough s***, now you know how it feels.’
Another customer, Carol Butler, said: ‘Really, Kenny? Read the room. Imagine being delayed by nine hours on the FR909 Cork to London flight yesterday without any update or explanation from ground staff or Ryanair.’
Aoife Crowley wrote: ‘Nice one Ryanair. You retweet your CMO’s ‘caring’ tweet about delays to holiday goers but left the tweets about being stuck at Gatwick for 11 hrs yesterday unanswered.’
The social media site quickly became swamped with similar messages, offering frustrated customers an outlet for what they consider a let down in service of late
The social media site quickly became swamped with similar messages, offering frustrated customers an outlet for what they consider a let down in service of late.
Neil Wilson accused Mr Jacobs of hypocrisy and said too often Ryanair leaves passengers high and dry.
Another: ‘At least you are still flying you f***. And haven’t been cancelled after a four hour delay, then been told to rebook everything ourselves and claim it all back.
It’s not the first time Mr Jacobs has made headlines for the wrong reasons either. The Irish carrier was plunged into controversy last September when it cancelled around 700,000 flight bookings after ‘messing up’ its pilots’ holiday rostering
It’s not the first time Mr Jacobs has made headlines for the wrong reasons either.
The Irish carrier was plunged into controversy last September when it cancelled around 700,000 flight bookings after ‘messing up’ its pilots’ holiday rostering.
Mr Jacobs described the cancelled flights as ‘not that big of a deal’ because it represented 0.5% of the carrier’s annual flights.
Outspoken Mr Jacobs has been one of Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary’s most trusted advisors and sits on the board alongside him
While last September, Mr Jacobs prompted further exasperation from Ryanair customers when he toasted himself publicly for a job well done – while 400,000 passengers had their flights cancelled that year so far.
He posted an image of his half-drunk Guinness with the caption ‘a pint of plain is your only man’ – a reference to the famous Irish poem ‘The Workman’s Friend’ about taking solace in stout when times are hard.
In May this year he told a trade magazine that he is ‘a bit of a bad boy in the industry’ and believes brands don’t need to be loved to be successful
But a MailOnline investigation at the time showed of the ten flights he had taken in that past week – many were for luxury trips such as to the Champions League tie in Barcelona, as well as to London where he stayed in the £259-a-night Laslett Hotel in Notting Hill.
Outspoken Mr Jacobs has been one of Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary’s most trusted advisors and sits on the board alongside him.
In May this year he told a trade magazine that he is ‘a bit of a bad boy in the industry’ and believes brands don’t need to be loved to be successful.