13-05-2025
Ryanair ordered to pay €250 to passenger for delaying flight for three hours
The judge in the city of Zaragoza indicated in her ruling that no extraordinary circumstances occurred on the flight, as the airline had claimed
Ryanair has been ordered by a judge in Spain to pay €250 to a passenger whose flight was delayed by more than three hours.
The judge in the city of Zaragoza also indicated in her ruling that no extraordinary circumstances occurred on the flight, as the airline had claimed.
The judge also suggested that some low-cost airlines attempt to save costs by not having enough aircraft, and attributing delays to extraordinary circumstances.
The Irish airline was criticised by the judge for attempting to save costs and not doing everything possible to ensure that a flight left on time.
The woman had filed a claim through an online legal services platform in Spain that specialises in helping individuals with various types of claims, including in airline, banking, and municipal tax disputes.
According to the site, 'it is common practice for airlines to indicate to those affected by flight delays and cancellations that they are not entitled to compensation by claiming the incident had occurred due to force majeure.
This is a catch-all term meaning an event (such as war, labour strike, or extreme weather) or effect that cannot be reasonably anticipated or controlled and was unforeseeable by the airline.
However, claims that 'on many occasions the purpose of this argument is to avoid financially compensating passengers because in reality such an extraordinary circumstance has not occurred'.
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"The Irish company always replied to the passenger that she was not entitled to compensation because the delay had occurred, according to her version, due to an unforeseeable and unavoidable extraordinary circumstance,' said Jorge Ramos, lawyer who took the case.
'However, our client did not sit idly by and, wanting to see her rights compensated, she decided to go to court through the legal team of to defend herself and obtain her financial compensation.'
According to local media site El Periodico, Ryanair had defended the case in court where it was argued, the passenger was not entitled to any compensation because the real reason for the delay was that there were no plans available due to force majeure.
However, legal team insisted that this circumstance was "totally avoidable", if all reasonable measures had been taken.
The judge ruled that it is true that a company cannot have an aircraft at each airport ready to depart when unforeseen circumstances arise.
However, the fact that an aircraft is assigned to several flights over a short period of time is due to a business decision, that considers cost reduction.
However, that gives rise to a 'clear risk' that an incident or delay on one flight will affect all the remaining flights assigned to the aircraft.
The judge decided that the 'lack of foresight' on the part of the company in the rotation from London to Zaragoza, in which it was already aware of a 'serious delay' caused in the London-Oporto rotation, caused further delay by not having adopted the necessary measures to avoid it.
Ryanair was eventually ordered to pay the passenger an amount of €250 as a result of the delay that could have been avoided if the airline had not 'dedicated itself to saving so many costs and offered its customers better resources.
According to the amount of €250 refers to the financial compensation that a passenger can claim for a flight delayed by more than three hours, if the flight distance is 1,500 km or less.
Ramos pointed out a previous, similar ruling of May 16, 2024 where the European Court indicated that airlines must compensate cases of extraordinary circumstances if they do not demonstrate that they took all reasonable measures within their power to avoid it.
