.
Under EU compensation rules, airlines have to pay the food and accommodation costs for passengers whose flights have been cancelled such as occurred during the recent airspace closure due to the Icelandic volcano ash cloud.
The head of Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, has been most outspoken about EU rules which he calls a ‘cheaters charter’ since there is no cap on what can be claimed. He says the airline will challenge up to twenty of the most contentious claims in local courts and then, if necessary, take them to the European court of first instance where it hopes that a favourable ruling will force the European parliament to put a cap on compensation.
There is no doubt that the EU rules are, as Mr O'Leary puts it, ‘ludicrous’ and they have cost Ryanair €40 millions. He cites claims coming from passengers who paid €30 for a ticket and are seeking compensation of €3,000.
Though I don’t always agree with Mr O'Leary’s ideas about maximising profit from passengers, I think he is right to seek a change in the EU rules on events out of the control of airlines and which ought more logically to be something to be covered by passenger travel insurance. Other airlines who have similarly had to face expensive compensation claims will be watching the situation very closely and I expect that others may follow suit.
Mr O'Leary is also spot on when he says that European regulators made a ‘complete dog’s balls’ by unnecessarily shutting European airspace in April
He got that right!
.
Under EU compensation rules, airlines have to pay the food and accommodation costs for passengers whose flights have been cancelled such as occurred during the recent airspace closure due to the Icelandic volcano ash cloud.
The head of Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, has been most outspoken about EU rules which he calls a ‘cheaters charter’ since there is no cap on what can be claimed. He says the airline will challenge up to twenty of the most contentious claims in local courts and then, if necessary, take them to the European court of first instance where it hopes that a favourable ruling will force the European parliament to put a cap on compensation.
There is no doubt that the EU rules are, as Mr O'Leary puts it, ‘ludicrous’ and they have cost Ryanair €40 millions. He cites claims coming from passengers who paid €30 for a ticket and are seeking compensation of €3,000.
Though I don’t always agree with Mr O'Leary’s ideas about maximising profit from passengers, I think he is right to seek a change in the EU rules on events out of the control of airlines and which ought more logically to be something to be covered by passenger travel insurance. Other airlines who have similarly had to face expensive compensation claims will be watching the situation very closely and I expect that others may follow suit.
Mr O'Leary is also spot on when he says that European regulators made a ‘complete dog’s balls’ by unnecessarily shutting European airspace in April
He got that right!
.
No comments:
Post a Comment