Gossip

Unsuitable behaviour at work: charging a mobile phone

The Dilbert-phobics at Ryanair have mystified the mobile industry by banning - no, not cameraphones. Phone chargers.

The hard-line "Catbert" types have apparently banned the use of chargers (reports Ian White of Mobile News) because "we do not think using a mobile phone charger in the workplace is acceptable."

Your Sniffer assumes that this isn't just idiocy, but yet another scheme to make Ryanair statistics look good.

Recently, the Hunkymouse had to fly to Poitiers. The flight was delayed - and we were all told to move to another gate. When the plane arrived, your Sniffer joined a half-hour queue - and was unamused to discover, right at the moment of boarding, that this was again, the wrong flight. Our flight had been moved to yet another gate, half an hour later.

Four hours later, we were finally allowed into the air.

Explanation? Easy! - Ryanair has the "best statistics" for punctuality in the business. And it achieves this by making sure that if a flight is late, it is VERY late.

The result is that another airline would have had six flights, all delayed by more than the magic 15 minutes. Ryanair, however, had six flights, all leaving on time except for the first, which went five hours late.

Ryanair: not mad, just devious. Though exactly how banning phone chargers assists flight stats is, really, a mystery...