‘You won’t be going to Istanbul anytime soon’, Ryanair tells Liverpool fan

Ryanair has triggered another social media fiasco by making derogatory remarks about Liverpool FC.

A prospective passenger, Sean Dowd, tweeted the airline to ask: “What’s the cheapest way to get to Istanbul @Ryanair? Asking for a freind [sic]”

Mr Dowd’s profile indicates he is a fan of Liverpool.

The social media team at Europe’s biggest budget airline tweeted back: “Hi Sean, unfortunately we currently do not fly to Istanbul.”

Then, in a reference to the Merseyside club’s current poor form – with three losses in the past five matches – Ryanair added: “Seeing as you are a Liverpool fan, we doubt you’ll be flying there any time soon either.”

Read more:

The Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul is the venue for the 2021 Champions League final in May.

The ground in Turkey’s largest city was the location for the celebrated final in 2005 when the Merseyside club came back from 3-0 down at half-time to beat AC Milan on penalties.

This season Liverpool face Real Madrid in the quarter finals of the Champions League. On current form, the Spanish team are expected to win. Even if Liverpool were to triumph in the two-leg decider, they would face a difficult semi-final – possibly against Chelsea or Manchester City, who are above them in the Premier League.

Liverpool are currently sixth in the table, 25 points behind the leaders, Manchester City – the team supported by Ryanair’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary.

The top five clubs will win places in European competitions next season, with the prospect once again of playing in Istanbul. But Liverpool’s local rivals, Everton, are on the same number of points with a game in hand, and could easily overtake the Anfield side.

In normal times Liverpool airport is an important base for Ryanair, with frequent flights to Spain and Ireland – but not Istanbul.

“Airline KItty” helpfully replied to Mr Dowd: “British Airways are flying to IST (May 21) and you get a free bottle of water & a bag of crisps on your way over. Not to mention the generous hand-baggage allowance.”

BA allows two bags weighing a total of 46kg; Ryanair’s limit is one small 10kg bag.

Given Ryanair’s reputation for ambitious claims about the location of some of its airports, the airline may start describing Plovdiv in southern Bulgaria as “Istanbul”. The cities are 210 miles apart.

In 2013, Michael O'Leary caused controversy when he ventured onto social media for the first time, using the hashtag “#GrillMOL”.

The combative CEO seemed unaware that his inappropriate Twitter response to one of the first questioners – a woman – would be seen by everyone. He wrote: “Nice pic. Phwoaaarr! MOL”.

It was rapidly retweeted, with responses such as “@Ryanair how is it appropriate for an airline CEO to be a sexist pig?”, and: “People who fly Ryanair: do you also think this is an acceptable thing to tweet at a woman?”

Mr O’Leary eventually responded: “Just found out what hashtags are. Learning on da job! Always compliment ladies pics”.