Millions of Ryanair passengers could be in line for a payout after Manchester County Court ruled that the airline cannot cut the time a passenger has to claim from six years to two by adding a clause to its small print. The ruling sets a precedent for delayed EU passengers on all airlines.
According to the BBC, lawyers said the ruling stands to affect millions of air passengers, because if Ryanair had won, all airlines may have been able to impose a two-year time limit on all existing and future flight delay claims.
The case was brought by lawyers for six delayed passengers who tried to claim compensation for delayed flights after five years and eight months, which Ryanair contested. After a long-running legal battle, Judge Platts ruled Ryanair’s rules fall foul of European Flight Delay law.
Legal firm Bott & Company, based in Wilmslow, Cheshire, which represented the two passengers who brought the case against Ryanair, say it could amount in up to £610million(€856m) of past claims for the airline.
However, Ryanair said it would immediately appeal the ruling, and estimates the potential liability will likely be less than €5m.
“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,” the airline said in a statement.
The UK Supreme Court ruling in Dawson v Thomson Airways in October last year clarified that passengers in England and Wales have six years to take a claim to court. But Ryanair has been arguing that by accepting the airline’s terms and conditions when they buy a ticket, passengers agree that they only have two years to take a claim to court, despite the earlier Supreme Court judgment.
In Friday’s ruling, Judge Platts suggested that Ryanair did not have this latest legal argument in mind when the Terms and Conditions were drawn up. Judge Platts said that Ryanair’s complicated legal argument “...requires a somewhat ingenious legal analysis which I doubt was in the mind of the parties when the contract was made”.
Ryanair claimed in a statement on Friday that more than 90 per cent of passengers make a claim within two years
However, the lawyers insisted their own estimates are accurate. Kevin Clarke of Bott &Company said the figures were based on the possibility that everybody who could claim, would claim.
Additional reporting: PA
