Ryanair may face penalty in Munster flight saga
The Commission for the Aviation Regulation yesterday said the airline could be in breach of EU rules over the manner in which it cancelled a flight to Bristol on the weekend of the match but subsequently reinstated it at highly inflated prices.
A spokesperson for the CAR said Ryanair’s action appeared to be “a cynical, commercial exercise”.
The airline is already being investigated by the National Consumer Agency over the same incident.
It is understood some Munster fans had pre- booked Ryanair flights to Bristol earlier this year in advance of their team qualifying for the final at the Millennium Stadium when fares were as low as €49.
In March, however, after it became clear that Munster stood a reasonable chance of advancing to the final, the airline notified passengers booked to take the 6.50am flight to Bristol on the day of the match that it was being rescheduled to 3pm – a tight deadline for anyone making the 70km journey to Cardiff for the game, which kicks off at 5pm.
Passengers were offered a new flight or a full refund.
However, the 6.50am service to Bristol on May 24 was subsequently reinstated, with return fares that weekend costing more than €450. Spokesperson for the CAR Cathal Guiomard said airlines were obliged to follow the terms of EU Regulation 261.
While airlines that cancel flights over two weeks in advance of the scheduled departure do not have to pay any compensation to passengers, they are obliged to provide customers on cancelled flights either a full refund or re-routing to the destination at the same cost as the original booking.
It could be argued that Ryanair should be made to offer places on the reinstated flight to people booked on the original service.
The CAR spokesperson said the regulator could only investigate the Bristol flight on foot of a formal complaint by a passenger.
However, anyone who has accepted a refund from the airline would not be entitled to pursue a complaint.
The CAR spokesperson said complaints could only be accepted after passengers first complain directly to airlines.
As such, it is unlikely that the CAR will adjudicate on the case in advance of the Heineken Cup final.
However, the airline could still face large fines if the CAR decided the case warranted a criminal prosecution.
Micheal O’Leary’s carrier accounted for 60% of all complaints received by the CAR during 2007.
A report by the European Commission last year also named Ryanair as the worst airline for its “explicit non-compliance” with EU legislation on passenger rights.
Ryanair claims two flights had incorrectly been scheduled to leave Dublin for Bristol on the morning of May 24, which resulted in one of them being put back to 3pm. However, the airline said it reinstated the service in response to demand.
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