‘Greasy tray tables and soiled headrests’: Ryanair named UK’s dirtiest airline

A Which? investigator who boarded a Ryanair flight reported ‘greasy tray tables, soiled headrests and dusty window sills’

Clean machine? Ryanair Boeing 737-800, the only type the airline currently flies, at Stansted airport (Simon Calder)

Ryanair has been named the dirtiest UK airline, according to a new study.

A Which? Travel survey found that fewer than half of Ryanair passengers (42 per cent) rated the airline for cleanliness onboard, which the consumer champion found was “significantly worse” than other airlines included in the survey.

A quarter of passengers onboard Europe’s biggest budget airline (24 per cent) added that cleanliness onboard was poor.

Which? surveyed almost 8,000 people online during September and October 2018 to find the dirtiest airlines.

A Which? investigator who boarded a Ryanair flight reported “greasy tray tables, soiled headrests and dusty window sills”. When they used an ultraviolet light to assess how clean the tray tables were, it showed up stains that couldn’t be seen by the naked eye, Which? said.

Overall, eight in 10 (81 per cent) passengers rated cleanliness positively across 42 airlines, both budget and full-service.

Only six in 10 passengers (62 per cent) onboard budget airline Wizz Air found the planes to be clean, while 63 per cent of passengers flying on Spanish carriers Vueling or Iberia felt the level of cleanliness to be good. Across Wizz Air and Vueling, one in 10 people rated the cabin cleanliness as “poor”.

At the other end of the spectrum, easyJet and British Airways both ranked as having good levels of hygiene onboard.

This went up further for passengers of Air New Zealand (97 per cent), Singapore Airlines (96 per cent), Emirates (95 per cent), Qatar Airways (95 per cent), Cathay Pacific (94 per cent) and Swiss (94 percent).

“Faster and faster turnarounds are one thing but it is unacceptable for some airlines to be cutting corners when it comes to cleaning out their cabins properly – no matter how cheap the airline ticket,” said Rory Boland, Which? Travel editor.

“There are steps you can take; either choose your next flight on an airline that has a good track record for cleanliness or equip yourself with some antibacterial wipes. If you are flying Ryanair though, a biohazard suit might be more appropriate.”

The Independent has asked Ryanair for comment.

Earlier this week, research found that the water on a range of major airlines is so dirty that even hand washing isn’t recommended.

Studying the water quality on 11 major US carriers and 12 regional ones, the 2019 Airline Water Study, compiled by DietDetective.com and the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Centre, found that only four out of 23 had “relatively safe, clean water”.

The study scored each airline on a scale of 0 (worst) to five (best) based on 10 criteria, including positive E coli and coliform water sample reports.