Ryanair threatens to DOUBLE fee for taking a child on a flight to £40 after losing landmark legal battle
The fee for taking a child under the age of 2 on a flight could rise to £40 to cover a change in compensation rules
BUDGET airline Ryanair has threatened to DOUBLE the fee for taking a child on a flight after losing a landmark legal battle.
A judge ruled today that infant passengers are entitled to flight delay compensation.
At the moment Ryanair charge £20 per child under the age of 2, per flight. If the airline fails to win an appeal against today's ruling it said it would consider pushing up the fee to £40.
The case was brought forward by a father who made a claim on behalf of his 6-month-old daughter who sat on his knee during a flight from Lanzarote to Birmingham, which was delayed for more than nine hours in December 2015.
Ryanair agreed to pay compensation to the father but argued that his daughter was not entitled to compensation under the regulation.
But a judge today ruled in favour of the young passenger, saying: "...I see no justification for restricting the meaning of the word in this one situation to exclude those without their own seat."
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Ryanair plans to appeal the ruling but if it loses it will be forced to pay out €400 (£342) for the claim.
The ruling will also set a precedent for passengers to claim flight delay compensation for children under the age of 2 on other airlines.
In a statement a spokesman from Ryanair said: “We have instructed our lawyers to immediately appeal this daft ruling.
“It is absurd that infants (under 2 years of age) who do not pay an airfare or occupy a seat, can now apply for up to €250 ‘compensation’ for a flight delay, when their accompanying adults will already have been compensated.
WHAT IS FLIGHT DELAY COMPENSATION?
Under EU rules passengers are entitled to compensation if their flight is delayed - and it’s the airline’s fault - by more than 2 hours.
It only applies to flights which are departing from an EU airport or arriving at an EU airport with an EU airline.
The amount of compensation you can receive varies depending on the length of the flight and delay.
The maximum a passenger can claim is up to €600 (£520) for a delay lasting more than four hours. Airlines can refuse to pay a claim if it’s outside of their control. For example, if there’s bad weather or industrial action.
“In this case, the 2 parents and a sister have already received €1,200 in compensation, which is almost 4 times the 3 one way airfares they paid of just £104. This is compo culture gone mad.”
“If this ruling is not overturned we will have to consider increasing the infant fee from €20 to €40 to cover these idiotic infant compo claims.”
Kevin Clarke, flight delay legal expert at Bott & Co, said: “We have always considered this to be a straightforward argument and we welcome this judgement from the court.
HOW CAN YOU CLAIM FLIGHT DELAY COMPENSATION?
TO claim for a flight delay you should contact the airline directly.
You will need details of your delay as well as your flight number and date of travel.
If your claim is rejected - and you think you have a case - you can raise a complaint through the for free.
“This is another significant judgement that will assist UK passengers in claiming the compensation to which they are entitled.”
Earlier this month, Ryanair customers were left frustrated after its website closed for maintenance after it launched a £5 flash sale.
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