Airlines to pay costs irrespective of disruption cause

Airlines must pay all accommodation, meals and transport costs of passengers if their flights are delayed even by circumstances outside their control, the European Court of Justice said, ruling in a case against Ryanair.

Ryanair said it will increase the cost of flight tickets — something the court said airlines were entitled to do to recoup the cost of compensating passengers.

However, the court also ruled no further compensation was owed to passengers due to the delay or cancellation of flights.

Denise McDonagh from Dublin sued Ryanair for around €1,120 after her flight from Faro in Portugal to Dublin was cancelled because of the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano in April 2010.

She spent nine days in Portugal before being able to get a flight back, but Ryanair refused to refund her the cost of accommodation and meals when she claimed.

She brought her case to the Dublin District Court where both sides agreed to refer it to the European Court in Luxembourg.

The judges found in Ms McDonagh’s favour saying as Ryanair did not provide her with the care she was entitled to under EU legislation, they must refund her the costs of her meals, refreshments, accommodation and transport.

The court said EU law does not exempt airlines from their obligations to passengers in any circumstances, and that there was no time or monetary limit.

In fact, the judges said, extraordinary circumstances means the passengers have an even greater need to be provided for by the airline, and especially if the circumstances persist over a long time.

This, they said, is so important that it justifies substantial negative economic consequences for operators, but they could pass on the costs incurred to airline ticket prices.

A statement from Ryanair said it regretted the court’s decision and that it “makes the airlines the insurer of last resort even when the majority of cases are outside their control such as delays caused by air traffic control or national strikes”.

“Today’s decision will materially increase the cost of flying across Europe and consumer airfares will increase as airlines will be obliged to recover the cost of those claims from their customers because European regulation does not allow us to recover such costs from the governments or unions responsible for over 95% of flight delays in Europe,” it said.