Consumer agency brings airlines back down to earth

Ryanair and Aer Lingus are just two of the companies to have fallen foul of the National Consumer Agency (NCA) in the past six months.

It issued compliance notices to both Ryanair and Aer Lingus for failing to provide an email address on their websites through which consumers could contact the airlines rapidly and in a direct and effective manner.

The NCA viewed this as a contravention of e-commerce legislation which imposes a direct obligation on traders providing an e-commerce service, including airlines, to provide consumers with an email address.