Product Description

Stung by a ten-hour delay and a €300 fare to Spain on his native ‘low-fares’ airline, Paul Kilduff plots revenge – to fly to every country in Europe for the same total outlay as his ruined holiday. Armed with no more than 10kg of carry-on baggage, he endures 6.00am departures, Six Nations-style boarding scrums, lengthy bus excursions, terminal anxiety and cabin crew who deliver famed customer service. Kilduff travels to places he never knew he wanted to go - beautiful Beauvais, cosmopolitan Charleroi, electric Eindhoven, heavenly Haugesund and tropical Tampere. All on a cheap Irish airline that flies from A to somewhere remotely near B, weighs baggage as if it were gold, charges passengers to check in or to use a wheelchair, sells them hangover cures and scratch cards, lands aircraft at the wrong airports,and doesn’t even care if Kilduff shows up….

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45838 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
Kilduff has a neat sense of irony when balancing his own and other people's discomfort,with the motivation that brings us all back to Ryanair: it's cheap. He can be a droll and perceptive writer. His dispatches from the hot-spots of Liechtenstein or San Marino are witty and engaging. A quirky study of a modern phenomenon, Ruinair is the ultimate airport book. You may even see it sold on Ryanair flights,if Michael O'Leary can find some way to make a buck from it -Sunday Business Post.

This is a travelogue in the best sense of the word-it captures the tone and the landscape of the changed Europe where we can now fly for a tenner, so that a reader in 100 years' time could quickly visualise the importance of what has happened. Kilduff's strength is the variety of destinations he visits and his contextualisation of the Ryanair experience. Kilduff's style is eminently suitable for an airline that is constantly mocking itself and taking the urine out of the airline industry it has enlivened -Irish Independent

Ruinair is an entertaining travel book based around the destinations you can visit on this much-used but maligned airline. This is a razor sharp travel guide. VERY funny, sure, but be warned, if the book fails to please,there is no refund -Sunday Tribune

It's chocks away for a breathless tour of the low-fares revolution.Kilduff has done his homework and displays a keen eye for bizarre detail, settling on the quirks of our European neighbours with touching exuberance. His no-holds-barred style echoes O'Leary himself, which should be a compliment. It's not half bad. There are worse ways you could while away the wait for your next Ryanair flight -Irish Mail on Sunday

Irish Independent
This is a travelogue in the best sense of the word.

Sunday Tribune
Ruinair is an entertaining travel book based around the destinations you can visit on this much-used but maligned airline. This is a razor sharp travel guide. VERY funny,sure, but be warned,if the book fails to please,there is no refund.

Customer Reviews

Hilarious
It's not often I get some belly laughs in books but "Ruinair" certainly provided plenty, at least in the first and last thirds. I travel a lot with Ryanair and have been lucky so far but the book reflects much of what does go on based on passenger complaints and incidents reported in radio phone-in programmes. One of the highlights of this book are the myriad of quotes attributed to "Mr. O'Leery" the boss of Ruinair and these are worth the price of the book on their own.
The title would lead you to believe that the book was all about Ryanair but other airlines were introduced that, somehow, didn't have quite the same "attraction".
A very enjoyable book although probably could have been shortened by about 50 pages for better effect especially in the middle portion. I gave it 3 stars but 3 and a half would be nearer the mark.

Ruinair
Excellent book well written and very funny.As a regular user of Ryanair many of the stories ring true and bring back many memories.Well worth a read.Try reading it on a Ryanair flight !!

Or Bill Bryson with wings !!
This is a highly entertaining and amusing book. It not just pokes fun at Ryanair but other European low cost carriers as well. In addition,the book is a very funny travelogue, reminiscent of Bill Bryson, of the various cities and countries that can be reached using the low cost airlines. I suppose Paul Kilduff uses the name Ruinair to avoid legal action but knowing Ryanair's philosophy of all publicity being good publicity I wouldn't mind betting that this company and its flamboyant Chief Executive would have been happy if the author had used their proper name rather than the very thinly disguised one which gives this book its title.