Ryanair has saved millions of pounds in compensation payouts after quitting an industry-wide arbitration body and leaving travellers with an uphill battle to obtain any redress, according to the consumer group Which?
The budget airline cut ties with Aviation ADR, one of two schemes that airlines use to arbitrate serious complaints, at the end of November last year. In the first 11 months of 2018 before Ryanair left the scheme, Aviation ADR received more than 14,000 complaints involving the airline and told it to pay out more than £2.6m to passengers, plus an administration fee of £75 for each complaint.
After Ryanair cut ties with the scheme, only 553 passengers pursued claims through the only other avenue, the Civil Aviation Authority, in the following four months. Which? said this suggested “a huge saving in fees and compensation for Ryanair, which cannot be compelled to pay out even if the aviation regulator finds in a passenger’s favour”.
The dispute goes back to earlier in 2018 when Ryanair sought to avoid claims made by passengers under EU regulations after it cancelled a number of flights due to strikes. After the European court of justice ruled that strikes were not an extraordinary circumstance, Aviation ADR started to find in favour of passengers making claims against Ryanair over the walkouts.
Which? found that even when Ryanair was with Aviation ADR, some passengers complained of waiting as long as a year to receive compensation.
The consumer group highlighted how one passenger, Kasia Nieduzak, made a complaint to Aviation ADR after her flight was cancelled in September 2017. She received a ruling from the arbitrator in July 2018 and her compensation was paid in November 2018. Nieduzak said the 14-month battle involved around 170 phone calls and 45 emails.
Ryanair told Which?: “Our policy is to pay all valid claims within an industry-leading 10 days of receipt and while regrettably we fell short on this occasion [with Nieduzak], this is certainly not representative.”
It said there was no reason for any of its customers to complain to Aviation ADR after it left the scheme, as they were all told to contact the CAA or the appropriate European authorities.
