RYANAIR INSTRUCTS LAWYERS TO APPEAL DEFECTIVE JUDGEMENT IN THE ROSS CASE

Ryanair, Europe's largest low fare airline today (30th Jan 04) instructed its lawyers to proceed immediately to lodge an appeal to the Court of Appeal, of what it considers to be the defective judgement handed down in the Central London County Court in a case taken by Mr Robert Ross. In this case, Mr Ross, who was not travelling in a wheelchair, and who was enjoying a £10 fare from London to the South of France, and whom the Judge accepted "would not fly to Perpignan four times a year if the Ryanair air fares were not so cheap" still expects Ryanair to pay £18 (£36 return) - or almost twice his air fare - for wheelchair assistance to a passenger who is not in a wheelchair - to get through the British Airports Authority's complicated terminal building at Stansted Airport.

In this case it is the BAA Stansted (who refuse to provide free of charge assistance to disabled people through their terminal building) that is out of step, not Ryanair. Ryanair operates to 86 airports all over Europe, and at over 80 of these airports the airport operator provides the disabled assistance through its terminal buildings on a free of charge basis. Why doesn’t Stansted or the BAA?

This County Court decision is also out of step with the current draft disability paper being prepared by the European Union. This paper states "There is a strong case for making the Airport manager responsible for organising and financing the assistance that people with reduced mobility need to use air transport". Ryanair fully supports and endorses this view.

Commenting on this defective judgement today, a spokesman for Ryanair said

"We wish to reiterate that Ryanair has never charged any wheelchair passenger for assistance at any airport including Stansted. In the case of wheelchair passengers Ryanair absorbs the cost of this assistance at Stansted and the tiny minority of other airports around Europe where this service is not provided free of charge by the Airport Operator".

“Mr Ross was not travelling in a wheelchair in this case, and was therefore directed to the third party service provider in Stansted, because the BAA Stansted do not provide this service free of charge - unlike the 80 other airports that Ryanair use in Europe.

“We believe this decision of the County Court is defective. It should clearly be the responsibility of the very profitable airport terminal operators to provide disabled passenger assistance through their buildings on a free of cost basis. These costs should not be imposed on the airlines, particularly when – as in the case of Mr Ross and Ryanair - the fare paid by Mr Ross to fly to the South of France was just half the cost of providing wheelchair assistance to get him through the terminal building in Stansted.

“We have instructed our lawyers to immediately appeal this decision, and we believe the Court of Appeal will find in favour of current EU thinking which is that these costs should be the responsibility of the airport terminal owner and operator. In the meantime, Ryanair regrettably will be levying a charge of £0.50 on every passenger carried in order to meet the cost of wheelchair assistance at Stansted, Gatwick, Dublin and Shannon airports, which are the only airports out of the 86 European airports Ryanair operates to who do not provide this mobility assistance through the airport terminal on a free of charge basis. Ryanair regrets this small levy but this defective County Court decision leaves us with no alternative. This levy will be withdrawn if and when this appeal is successful, which will we expect result in BAA Stansted being obliged to provide this assistance at Stansted on a free of charge basis to the disabled in line with current policy at the overwhelming majority of European airports.”

Attached is an extract from the current EU discussion document on disabled assistance at airports which recommends that airport operators/owners should be responsible for providing free of charge assistance to the disabled.

EXTRACT FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION TRANSPORT DIRECTORATE STAFF WORKING PAPER

RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH REDUCED MOBILITY WHEN
TRAVELLING BY AIR

17. The managing body of an airport has wide responsibilities throughout the airport and so looks be well placed to provide a comprehensive and seamless service. Moreover, it would be unreasonable to expect one airline to provide assistance throughout an airport, for its own passengers and for those transferred between carriers, in the terminals that it uses and in others. There is a strong case for making the airport manager responsible for organising and financing the assistance that people with reduced mobility need to use air transport. (It could supply the assistance itself or place contracts with suppliers.)

38. The solution suggested would avoid these problems as the charge levied on each airline would be proportional to the total quantity of passengers that it embarked and disembarked at an airport. In this way, it would be independent of the number of passengers with reduced mobility carried, so that the airline would little economic incentive to reduce their numbers. Such a scheme would not impose additional costs on the sector, except for that of extended assistance when required, but would change the way assistance at airports was
organised and financed: certain responsibilities would be transferred from air carriers to themanaging bodies of airports. However, the latter would not bear the cost themselves but rather charge it to the airlines using their airports. Airlines would pass the charge on to their passengers as a whole, so that it would be shared among a large number of citizens. And a person with reduced mobility would not be seen as an extra cost but welcomed as a passenger, at all stages from booking a ticket to arrival at destination.

Source: www.europa.eu.int/comm/transport/air/rights/index_en.

Attached is a list of 80 European airports where the terminal owner/operator provides disabled assistance free of charge.

Airports provide free assistance to passengers requesting wheelchair services

AUSTRIA
Graz/ Klagengurt/ Linz/ Salzburg

BELIGUM
Charleroi

DENMARK
Aarhus/ Esbjerg

FINLAND
Tampere

FRANCE
Beauvais/ Bergerac/Biarritz/ Brest/ Carcassonne/ Dinard/ La Rochelle/ Limoges/ Montpellier/ Nimes/ Pau/ Perpignan/ Poitiers/ Rodez/ St. Etienne/ Tours

GERMANY
Altenburg/ Baden-Baden/ Berlin/ Erfurt/ Freidrichshafen/ Hahn/ Lubeck/ Niederrhine

HOLLAND
Eindhoven/ Groningen

IRELAND
Cork/ Kerry/ Knock

ITALY
Algehero/ Anconca/ Bari/ Bergamo/ Brescia/ Ciampino/ Forli/ Genoa/ Palermo/ Pescara/ Pisa/ Treviso/ Trieste/ Turin

NORWAY
Haugesund/ Torp

PORTUGAL
Faro

SPAIN
Girona/ Jerez/ Murcia/ Reus/ Valladolid

SWEDEN
Gothenburg/ Malmo/ Skvasta/ Vasteras

UK
Blackpool/ Bournemouth/ Bristol/ Cardiff/ City of Derry/ LeedsBradford/ Liverpool/ Luton/ Newcastle/ Prestwick