Ryanair charges opposed

The Consumers' Association is seeking a meeting with the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, for "clarification about the legal nuances" surrounding Ryanair's policy of refusing to refund airport charges to customers who have missed their flights.

The association is also taking legal advice. The decision to seek a meeting follows reports that the low-cost airline boosted its profits by up to €27 million last year by not returning airport charges to customers who had not in fact used the airports.

The charges are the same for all customers regardless of the price of the ticket, disproportionately affecting those travelling on economy fares. Irish passengers pay about €13.70 each in taxes and charges on flights from Dublin and more from Cork and Shannon. Of this, €6.55 (some €7.85 in Cork and Shannon) is accounted for by a passenger service charge and an airport security charge levied by Aer Rianta on each departing passenger. The charges are collected by the airlines and given to the airport authority after each passenger has travelled. The airlines only hand over the charges for passengers who have travelled.

According to Ryanair's interpretation of the regulations, it is then up to each airline to decide what to do with the charges collected from customer who have not taken up their seat.

Aer Lingus, which was also reported last week to be keeping the charges paid by non-travelling customers, later stated that it returned the charges to non-travelling customers.

A spokeswoman added, however, that individual customers would have to seek the refund themselves. "We don't just send it back automatically." A Ryanair spokeswoman said that since no bookings with the airline could be cancelled, no element of the fare was refundable. All fares were non-refundable and this was a condition of booking with the airline, she said.

"We keep each seat booked for each passenger and the seat is reserved for them regardless of whether they decide to travel or not. It is the entire fare that is non-refundable, not any element of the fare. This is perfectly fair since if a passenger has booked a low fare with Ryanair they have denied any other customer and indeed Ryanair, the prospect of selling that seat to another customer."

The Consumers' Association spokesman, Mr Dermot Jewell, described this stance, however, as "arrogant", and said the question of whether the passenger charges were Ryanair's to keep would "have to be clarified legally".