Ryanair may stop passengers who haven’t printed their boarding passes from travelling, after a ruling banned the airline from charging those without the documents €40.
According to a spokesperson, the low cost carrier may no longer print out boarding passes for passengers, so those who fail to arrive with a printed copy of their emailed flight confirmation would not be able to pass through security.
The news comes as a blow to those who don’t have simultaneous access to an email account, a computer, a working internet connection, a printer, printer paper and printer ink.
The threat comes in the wake of a legal challenge in Spanish court that led to a ruling branding the charging fees for reissuing boarding passes illegal.
Ryanair says it will appeal what it described as the “bizarre and unlawful” decision.
Judge Barbara Maria Cordoba, of the Barcelona commercial court, said airlines rather than passengers were obliged to issue boarding cards.
According to reports in the Irish Independent, she said, “The normal practice over the years has been that the obligation to issue the boarding card has always fallen on the carrier.”
“I declare unfair and therefore void the contractual clause in which Ryanair obliges the passenger to be the one who brings the printed boarding pass to travel or face a penalty of €40.”
Ryanair was bullish in its response. A statement from a spokesperson said:
“Ryanair’s low fare, low cost services appeal to millions of passengers because they are simple, efficient and agreed by each passenger at the time of booking. Without these procedures, Ryanair would have to re-employ numerous handling agents at all airports to issue manual boarding cards for passengers who simply “forgot” to bring their pre-printed boarding passes or who failed to comply with their original agreement to check-in online.
We believe that the Barcelona Commercial Court No.1 has no basis, as a matter of contract law, for its ruling last week, that there is any obligation upon Ryanair to reissue boarding passes to intending passengers who have failed to comply with their agreement to arrive at the airport with a pre-printed boarding card, except on payment of the specified reissue fee.
If this ruling is upheld on appeal, Ryanair will be forced to cease offering a Boarding Pass Reissue facility at airports and passengers who are not in possession of a valid Boarding Pass for their flight will not be able to pass through security, and will be unable to travel. These passengers will then need to make a new booking for the next available flight at the current fare.
Ryanair cannot understand how the Barcelona Commercial Court can reinterpret a contractual agreement freely entered into between 73m passengers and Ryanair, after the event. We are confident that this ruling will be overturned on appeal, and in the meantime the boarding card reissue fee will continue to be applied at all Ryanair airports for this tiny number of passengers who do not comply with their agreement to arrive at the airport with their online boarding card.”
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