- Under EU law, passengers are able to claim up to €600 flight delay compensation if their flight is delayed by more than 3 hours
- Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary once ranted “There’s no legislation designed that says any airline getting a fare of 30 euro should be reimbursing passengers many thousands of euro for hotel accommodation. It’s absurd.”
- Now, Ryanair is accused of ‘illegally restricting passengers’ compensation claims with its latest change in terms and conditions
- Tactics dismissed as “bully-boy” by leading flight refund claim service provider
RyanAir’s record of shame – number of flights more than 3 hrs late arriving at British airports, January to March 2016 (3)
A leading delayed flight compensation handling company, Flight Refunds, has joined a chorus of disapproval from consumer advocate groups about Ryanair’s latest change to its terms and conditions, branding the move “without any legal merit”. This is after another Ryanair attempt to ignore the law was thrown out of court in 2015.
Consumer rights advocates are crying foul because of this amended term – ‘Ryanair will not process claims submitted by a third party if the passenger concerned has not submitted the claim directly to Ryanair and allowed Ryanair time to respond.’ (1)
Flight delay compensation claims are allowed under EU Regulation 261/2004 which came into effect in February 2005. The law applies to flights departing from the EU or where the flight is operated by an EU-registered airline. It covers cases of denied boarding, flight cancellations and flight delays. (2)
Under the rules, a passenger can claim flight delay compensation if there was a delay of three or more hours where the delay was caused by the airline. Flight delay compensation does not have to be paid out in extraordinary circumstances, like French air traffic control strikes or inclement weather.
Ryanair’s controversial moves come after the publication of punctuality statistics for its flights from UK airports between January and March 2016. There were nearly 300 cases of flights being delayed by 3 or more hours. (3).
“Don’t let these bully-boy tactics scare you”, stated Flight Refunds’ head of press relations. “They’re one of the largest airlines in the world but that didn’t stop them being 3 or more hours late on 300 flights last year”.
“This is like saying we won’t deal with you if you use a trained solicitor. They’re only saying this because flight delay compensation claims handler like Flight Refunds more often than not tie their legal team up in knots.”
Click here to see if there are grounds for you to claim up to €600 for a flight delay you experienced with Flight Refund’s online flight delay compensation checker.
SOURCES