<P> In late December, a survey rated this airline the worst in the world for customer service among short - haul carriers in the Which? survey . (In truth, bottom place was shared with Vueling .) Ryanair responded as follows . "This survey of 9,000 Which? members is unrepresentative and worthless, during a year when Ryanair is the world's largest international airline (129m customers) and is also the world's fastest growing airline (up 9m customers in 2017). We have apologised for the deeply regretted flight cancellations and winter schedule changes, and the disruption they caused to less than 1% of our customers". </P> <P> Ryanair's advertising and the antics of Michael O'Leary, such as causing deliberate court controversy to generate free publicity for the airline, have led to a number of complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and occasionally court action being taken against the airline . </P> <P> An example of this was the live BBC News interview on 27 February 2009 when Michael O'Leary, observing that it was "a quiet news day", commented that Ryanair was considering charging passengers £ 1 to use the toilet on their flights . The story subsequently made headlines in the media for several days and drew attention to Ryanair's announcement that it was removing check - in desks from airports and replacing them with online check - in . Eight days later O'Leary eventually admitted that it was a publicity stunt saying "It is not likely to happen, but it makes for interesting and very cheap PR". The concept of Ryanair charging for even this most essential of customer services was foreseen by the spoof news website "The Mardale Times" some five months previously, in their article "Ryanair announce new' Pay - Per - Poo' service". </P> <P> Ryanair often use their advertising to make direct comparisons and attack their competitors . One of their advertisements used a picture of the Manneken Pis, a famous Belgian statue of a urinating child, with the words: "Pissed off with Sabena's high fares? Low fares have arrived in Belgium ." Sabena sued and the court ruled that the advertisements were misleading and offensive . Ryanair was ordered to discontinue the advertisements immediately or face fines . Ryanair was also obliged to publish an apology and publish the court decision on their website . Ryanair used the apologies for further advertising, primarily for further price comparisons . </P>

When did ryanair operates 230 aircraft on over 1 100 routes across europe