Earlier today a press release started circulating and several news outlets reported that low-cost airline Ryanair had decided to flout EU visa rules by allowing asylum seekers without visa to board flights to Belgium, Italy, France, Spain, Denmark and Germany.
Ryanair has denied this story, and it has since been retracted by several outlets, including DPA International, a German press agency:
We managed to find a copy of the original story posted by DPA International by using Google's cache:
The 'Kenny Jacobs' mentioned in the story does indeed work for Ryanair according to his LinkedIn profile. But reporters contacted Ryanair and the entire story was denied categorically:
About @Ryanair flying #refugees without documents, press office told me "entirely fictitious" no truth to these claims whatsoever" #ryanfair
-- Andrew Connelly (@connellyandrew) September 30, 2015
It appears the hoax was part of a campaign by an organisation calling itself RyanFair that has set up a fake website using Ryanair's look and feel to promote the cause of refugees.
Lead Stories' Trendolizer™ constantly scours social networks worldwide for trending news about Ryanair, true or not. Scroll down to see the latest.
