Ryanair boss claims ‘no show’ policy legal
Mr O’Leary also threatened to withdraw three other Ryanair routes from Shannon over its long-standing row on airport charges with Aer Rianta.
In an appearance before the Oireachtas Committee on Transport yesterday, Mr O’Leary offered a trademark, brash defence of Ryanair’s practices, especially its no-refund policy for people who fail to show up for flights.
He also warned that Ryanair would transfer its remaining routes from Shannon to Brussels, Beauvais and Stansted if Aer Rianta followed “the same suicide policy” of raising its charges when no-fee deals on these routes expire over the next few years.
On the issue of refunds, Mr O’Leary said customers agreed that they were not entitled to get a refund when they click on an acceptance box when booking flights over the internet. “If you don’t show, you are not getting your money back,” said Mr O’Leary.
He claimed the airline had never received any advice to suggest that holding on to the airport charges portion of fares paid by no-show passengers was illegal. However, Mr O’Leary said he would happily change procedures if the airline was found not to be complying with the law.
He also pointed out that Ryanair operated one of the most flexible ticket changing policies of any airline by allowing customers to change the time of travel and passenger name up to three hours before a flight.
Unlike other airlines, Ryanair doesn’t overbook flights so that people don’t get bumped off flights by rich businessmen who pay more, said Mr O’Leary.
In a strongly-worded attack, he accused the Government of holding up rapid tourism growth over its failure to break up Aer Rianta’s monopoly. Mr O’Leary told the committee members that the situation would not change until “you get off your backsides” and take some action.
Noted for his colourful language, Mr O’Leary was reminded on a number of occasions that his choice of words was unparliamentary, especially after describing the former Minister for Public Enterprise Mary O’Rourke as incompetent.
The Ryanair boss also defied the dress code of Leinster House by not wearing a tie and later removing a jacket while speaking in the chamber. He courted further controversy with his constant use of war metaphors, describing Aer Rianta as the Iraq of Ireland and demanding a regime change in Aer Rianta. In reference to Shannon airport, he remarked: “There would not be room for American military aircraft if we had our way.”
He claimed Aer Rianta would lose €300,000 in revenue over its recent loss of Ryanair’s Frankfurt-Hahn service to Kerry.
Mr O’Leary blamed Aer Rianta for the fact that Irish tourism is “in the toilet”, although he still believed that Shannon had good development potential so long as it was free from the control of the State airport authority.
Ryanair had not signed an EU charter on the rights of air travellers because it was meaningless. “It is the most vacuous document ever agreed between a bunch of airlines and civil servants,” said Mr O’Leary.
Although accused of having a paranoia and a complex by some TDs, Mr O’Leary insisted that the extent of ignorance in Ireland about Ryanair’s success was breathtaking.
He also criticised proposals for a new rail link between Dublin Airport and the city centre and described the subsidies for airlines operating services to the regional airports as scandalous.
Committee chairman Eoin Ryan (FF) said he could not accept Mr O’Leary’s argument for the airline’s refusal to refund airport charges as Ryanair was acting as an agent for Aer Rianta.
Labour TD Roisín Shortall said Mr O’Leary didn’t seem to accept that Aer Rianta also has overhead costs. She highlighted an independent report which found Dublin Airport was extremely competitive compared to many other airports.
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