The European Court of Justice has ruled in favour of a Dublin woman who was seeking compensation from Ryanair after her flight was grounded in 2010.
Do you remember the Icelandic ash cloud of 2010? How could you forget? Nearly everyone knows at least one person who had their travel plans affected by it.
The cloud saw some people being forced to stay abroad for longer than they had anticipated and for many, that meant spending more money then they planned.
One Dublin woman, Denise McDonagh, took Ryanair to court suing them for the €1,129 that she was forced to spend when she was stuck in Portugal for an extra week. She claimed it was Ryanair’s responsibility to look after her (as well as other passengers, of course) as stipulated by EU regulations.
The airline, however, said that it shouldn’t be made liable for the impact of what it said was “more than extraordinary circumstances”.
Now, thanks to the European Court of Justice ruling, airlines must provide care to all passengers who get caught up in unexpected instances, like the ash cloud or a Godzilla strike, regardless of the time or cost involved. On second thought, Godzilla cover probably isn’t included.
The court did say that passengers can only claim ‘reasonable’ costs, so if you stay in a five star resort while your plane is grounded, you probably won’t get compensated.
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