OREANDA-NEWS. April 26, 2012. Ryanair, Ireland’s favourite airline, today (26 Apr) called for an official inquiry into fat-cat civil servants’ travel costs after figures from the Office of Public Works (OPW) revealed that the Govt wasted over €6m flying pampered civil servants on high fare Aer Lingus flights last year, while it was cutting hospitals and schools budgets and preaching austerity to ordinary citizens.
 
Ryanair published the OPW figures (issued to the National Procurement Service) which revealed that travel on high fares Aer Lingus outnumbered travel on low fares Ryanair by a factor of 6:1, with over 9,200 Aer Lingus flights compared to just 1,600 taxpayer friendly Ryanair flights. The OPW paid an average fare of over €380 every time it booked flights in 2011, when Ryanair’s average fare was just €42.
 
Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said,
           
“The OPW figures for civil service travel highlight that those preaching austerity clearly don’t practice it, with a complete disregard shown to taxpayers. Surely this money would have been better allocated to the State’s hospitals and schools than to the Government’s former flag carrier.
 
Ryanair offers a low cost, convenient and punctual service yet Civil Servants opt time and time again for high fare Aer Lingus seats. This is costing the taxpayer millions of euro each year and must be addressed and explained by the Govt if it is to retain any credibility and tackle the high spending habits of its pampered staff.”