Ryanair set to double fee for babies?

Ryanair set to double fee for babies?
Ryanair set to double fee for babies?




Ryanair could double the fee for taking a child on a flight to £40 after losing a landmark legal battle.

A judge ruled this week that infant passengers are entitled to flight delay compensation.

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If the airline fails to win an appeal against the ruling, they might consider doubling the current charge of £20 for babies on board.

According to The Sun, the case was brought forward by a father who made a claim on behalf of his six-month-old daughter who sat on his knee during a flight from Lanzarote to Birmingham in December 2015, which was delayed by over nine hours.

Ryanair agreed to pay compensation to the father but not to the daughter.They argued that they should not have to pay compensation to babies who do not have a seat reservation, and said the girl could not have suffered inconvenience due to her young age.

However, a judge at Liverpool Crown Court ruled the baby was a passenger for the purposes of the regulations.

Judge Pearce said: "Many passengers in many situations (for example, on buses and trains) travel without having a seat. They are nonetheless passengers for that, and I can see no justification for restricting the meaning of the word in this one situation to exclude those without their own seat."

Ryanair has instructed its lawyers to immediately appeal the ruling.

Speaking to the Telegraph, a Ryanair spokesman said: "It is absurd that infants (under two years of age), who do not pay an air fare or occupy a seat, can now apply for up to €250 EU261 'compensation' for a flight delay, when their accompanying adults will already have been compensated.

"In this case, the two parents and a sister have already received €1,200 in EU261 compensation, which is almost four times the three one-way airfares they paid of just £104. This is compo culture gone mad."



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