Compensation for passengers whose Ryanair flights were canceled by recent strikes has led to a new fight between the airline and consumer groups, led by Belgium’s Test-Achats. The airline is trying to require claims be filed in Ireland, no matter where the customer lives or flies.
Under EU regulations, airlines must compensate passengers for canceled or seriously delayed flights, up to several hundred Euros—but not if the cause was out of the airline’s hands, such as weather. Ryanair began this round by claiming that strikes fell into that category, a claim quickly rebutted by EU regulators.
Now, Ryanair hjas changed the fine print in its customer contract; accepting the ticket appears to bind the passenger to make any legal complaints against the company in Ireland, and not in the country where the claimant lives and where Ryanair does business. Test-Achats is preparing legal action in Belgium against that provision.
And Ryanair is now saying that customers are free to file their complaints in the courts of any country. But only after first filing in Ireland, a process that would be so costly and time-consuming that most passengers would not pursue it.
