Ryanair says the latest air traffic performance data will silence those who claim its safety record is poor.
The low-cost carrier says the latest quarterly performance stats from NATS, the UK’s air navigation service provider, shows its safety record is above average.
"Ryanair was once again amongst the best performing airlines for minimising level busts (when aircraft fail to fly at the level cleared to), reducing callsign confusion incidents and compliance with Air Traffic Control procedures," the company said in a statement.
The quarterly performance table shows that, for level busts, Ryanair recorded an annual rate of 0.94 per 100,000 movements, compared to an all-airline average of 6.71.
For callsign confusion events (leading to recognition errors between pilots and ATC), Ryanair recorded 3.73 incidents per 100,000 movements, compared with 4.58 all-airline average.
And, for failure to follow ATC procedure events, Ryanair recorded 0.93 incidents per 100,000 movements, compared with an all-airline average of 1.78.
The airline’s safety record was criticised in a Channel 4 Dispatches TV programme on Monday night and has said it will take legal action.
Meanwhile, the Ryanair Pilot Group (RPG) issued a statement reaffirming its stance on Monday’s Channel 4 Dispatches programme, where it claimed regulatory authorities appear unwilling to take pilots’ concerns seriously.
RPG chairman Captain Evert van Zwol said: "How can the safety opinions of over 1,000 professional pilots be ignored by the safety regulator?"
