Ryanair imposes compensation surcharge

worldtraveller

Passengers on Ryanair are facing a £2 a trip surcharge to cover the cost of paying compensation when flights are cancelled.

The no-frills carrier announced the levy as it stepped up pressure on the European Commission to change the law.

Currently passengers whose flights are cancelled or significantly delayed are entitled to demand the reimbursement of an array of costs including food and accommodation under a regulation known as EU261.

Ryanair is demanding that airlines be exempted from the obligation to pay compensation when events are outside their control.

This would apply to extreme weather and strikes by outside organisations.

The airline said EU 261 had cost more than £88 million last year, when it was forced to cancel 15,000 flights, hitting the journeys of 2.4 million of its passengers.

Telegraph.co.uk

I guess that other carriers are factoring this into their pricing anyway! :think:

bagand96

Its hardly a surprise.

As Cityboy has pointed out, the regulation has been around for 6 years. Anybody who has bought an airline ticket with any airline in the last 6 years has paid a "compensation surcharge". It may not have been itemised in your invoice, but there is no doubt ALL airlines have will have factored additional compensation costs into their revenue stream - i.e. increased ticket prices.

The only reason Ryanair are now choosing to itemise it is to suit their own political agenda. Like 90% of Ryanair press releases - nothing to see here, move along.

Elton

As someone who will normally travel many miles out of my way to avoid flying with Ryanair I don't often find myself in agreement with Mr O'Leary. However on this issue I feel he has a point.

Sure, he is introducing the charge to make a political point. But it is a valid political point. It is very easy for politicians to say "vote for us and we will force businesses to do x, y, and z." But in the end it is the consumer that pays. I.e. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

By making the cost of servicing the compensation into a "surcharge" Ryanair are just saying that if you want cheaper tickets you will have to vote for politicians who don't make costly promises - although as it is EU legislation there isn't much we could do anyway due to the complete absence of democracy in Brussels.

moonrakerz

BUT - NO fuel surcharge !! :rotfl:

What a con artist that man is .....................

budgetflyer

bagand96 wrote: »

Its hardly a surprise.

As Cityboy has pointed out, the regulation has been around for 6 years. Anybody who has bought an airline ticket with any airline in the last 6 years has paid a "compensation surcharge". It may not have been itemised in your invoice, but there is no doubt ALL airlines have will have factored additional compensation costs into their revenue stream - i.e. increased ticket prices.

The only reason Ryanair are now choosing to itemise it is to suit their own political agenda. Like 90% of Ryanair press releases - nothing to see here, move along.

Yes but this last year has seen a catalogue of events one after the other that have been beyond the control of any airline.Why should they be responsible for actions beyond their control?

Anyway, it is only £2 per passenger, so on a rtn journey its only £1 ew They could easily have hidden it in the fares but M O'L obviously wanted to make a statement.
HOWEVER,now that this levy is introduced, remember, if it disappears, then so have your existing passenger rights!

Sidenote
During the Volcanic Ash Crisis, non EU airlines who flew long haul routes involving a transit stop outwith the EU, abandoned their returning (to EU) passengers in the 4 corners of the globe with no help what so ever.
These airlines have an unfair trading advantage over BA,KLM, Lufthansa etc and although not in direct competition, Ryanair , Easyjet in that they do not need to factor in compensation into their fares as they just dont pay it!

shaun_from_Africa

Ryanair is demanding that airlines be exempted from the obligation to pay compensation when events are outside their control.

This would apply to extreme weather and strikes by outside organisations.

There is already an exclusion to compensation having to be paid for "extraordinary circumstances", and both weather and strikes are covered by this.

dmg24

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

There is already an exclusion to compensation having to be paid for "extraordinary circumstances", and both weather and strikes are covered by this.

In such circumstances they are still liable for care to the passenger until they can fly them home, and these claims can be far larger than the standard EU compensation.

Pelican_eats_pigeon

Pointless and attention-seeking attempt to try and turn public opinion against the EC regulation. Best ignored.

richardw

Ryanair link http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-to-introduce-eu261-compensation-levy-of-2-euro

Looks like they are moaning about Art 9 Right to care obligations and not Art 7 compensation, so giving the wrong name to the levy, which is highly political.

EC261/2004 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004R0261:EN:HTML

Voyager2002

The surcharge, if considered as an insurance premium, represents good value for money. Events like the volcano are certainly not the fault of the passengers, and a pound seems like a small sum to be protected from the financial consequences of this kind of event.

lfc84

AKA Fuel Surcharge.

Dont consider it as an insurance premium since I dont need to buy this insurance and there is no opt out