Ryanair loses delay compensation case; airline to appeal

A JUDGE at Manchester County Court has ruled in favour of consumers in the flight delay test case – Goel & Trivedi v Ryanair. It is a decision which stands to benefit millions of passengers.

The judge ruled that Ryanair cannot dictate how long passengers have to claim flight delay compensation through a clause in its small print.

Ryanair argued that by accepting the airline’s conditions when they buy a ticket, passengers agreed that they have only two years to take a claim to court, despite the Supreme Court saying they have six years.

Article 15 of Flight Delay Regulation EC 261/2004 states that airlines ‘cannot limit or restrict the rights contained in the Regulations’. The judge in Manchester upheld Article 15 and said ‘On any view, that must amount to a restriction or limit on the airline’s obligation to pay and thus fall foul of Article 15.1.’

It is likely that all other flight compensation claims in England and Wales will follow the decision.

Flight delay Regulation EC 261/2004 entitles passengers to claim flight compensation of up to €600 (£434) per person for delays of three hours or more, as long as the delay was not caused by ‘extraordinary circumstances’.

The law states that airlines must apply the limitation period (how long a passenger has to take the claim to court) of the country in which the claim was lodged.

The Supreme Court ruling in an earlier case clarified that passengers in England and Wales have six years to take a claim to court.

A statement from Ryanair following the decision read: ‘We note this ruling which reverses lower court orders that a two year time limit for claims is reasonable.Since we believe a six year time limit for submitting such claims is both unnecessary and unreasonable, we have instructed our lawyers to immediately appeal this ruling.’

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