February 2nd - Ryanair Loses Compensation Court Battle

Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast

The Independent

Places & Travel, Leisure, Society & Culture

3.6 • 628 Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2022

⏱️ 4 minutes

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Summary

Ryanair has failed in its attempt to overturn a court ruling that it must pay compensation to passengers affected by industrial action that dates back from an industrial dispute in 2018. Thousands of the airline's customers lost out when flights were cancelled in due to a series of walkouts in 2018 and today a court ruling has sided with the Civil Aviation Authority and say Ryanair must pay the compensation to travellers. But before you go planning on how to spend any potential windfall, I'll take you through what's next and remind you of your rights as a passenger, as well as discussing why this case shows the system isn't fit for purpose.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Simon Calder, welcoming you to my independent travel podcast, bringing you the latest
0:06.7	news on travelling, whether you're just dreaming of a great escape, looking forward to one,
0:11.4	or actually away, and having the time of your life. I hope you're not listening to this
0:16.4	being delayed at an airport, or indeed seeing your flight cancelled. But let me take you back to
0:23.3	2018 today, because that was the position that tens of thousands of passengers found themselves
0:30.2	in, because they were flying on Ryanair. And in that far off year, Ryanair had all sorts of industrial relations problems with cabin crew,
0:41.2	but with particularly pilots, a very, very ill-tempered dispute that led to mass cancellations of flights.
0:50.9	Now, when your flight is cancelled, you are able to claim compensation between £220 for shorter flights to £350 to £350 for longer flights. That is absolutely under the rules. And of course, the airline also has to find you an alternative flight, ideally on its services, but if that doesn't work,
1:12.4	then buy you a ticket on another airline. Many people took the view that Ryanair owed them
1:20.3	money, but the Irish airline, which of course is the biggest budget airline in Europe,
1:25.5	told them, sorry, you don't qualify because this was so-called
1:29.3	extraordinary circumstances that could not have been foreseen or prevented. Well, an awful lot of
1:36.8	people are going to say, well, yes, they could. You can have better industrial relations and therefore
1:41.5	you wouldn't need to sustain a strike. And certainly the pilots unions and
1:48.8	the cabin crew unions kind of use the fact that this could cost airlines millions of pounds in
1:54.7	compensation. It's part of the art of negotiation. Ryanair said, you're not having any money.
2:02.2	The Civil Aviation Authority took Ryanair to court.
2:06.1	They cannot just say you've got to pay money.
2:09.5	They have to seek an enforcement order under the Enterprise Act 2002.
2:14.7	No, I haven't read it either.
2:16.8	So, that took some time to the extent that it was last April when Judge Gerald, no, I don't know him either, found in passengers' favour. Now, Ryanair promptly appealed and we have just had the original judgment upheld. In other words, the appeal court said, no, you do have to hand them the money.
2:39.1	Now, a couple of things. First of all, the Civil Aviation Authority, which took this action, says,
	...

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