Wednesday 11 January 2012

Man wins compensation after Ryanair refuses to let him board ........


The passenger had been robbed of his identity in the airport, but the airline would not accept the official report of the theft......

 
The Spanish State Air Safety Agency, AESA, has ordered Ryanair to compensate a passenger for ‘unjustified refusal of embarking’.

The company had stopped the man from boarding the plane after his DNI identity document had been stolen, and despite the fact that he had presented the corresponding denuncia, a driving licence and a photocopy of the DNI.

Ryanair has been ordered to pay 250 € compensation and repay the cost of the ticket, according to judicial sources quoted in El Mundo.

  Antonio Ramos, from Granollers, Barcelona, tried to board a flight at El Prat for Valladolid, although his final destination was Palencia. When he got to the check in, he realised that he had lost his wallet. Because he was two and a half hours ahead of the flight time, he then went to get the Mossos d’Esquadra regional police at the airport to make a ‘denuncia’, and then returned to the check in to inform Ryanair what had happened.

They said he could only get an authorisation to fly from the ticket office but they refused to let him fly, despite his presentation of the documentation of the theft, a driving licence and a photocopy of his DNI, identity card. The only option the company offered was for a flight for the following day, at a charge of 100 € more.

Antonio was forced to return home and use his car to travel to Palencia.

Considering his rights had been broken, he decided to denounce Ryanair ‘which has not even dignified itself to offer a single answer’ to the AESA and to the courts in Granollers, and it is the latter which has ordered the airline to comply and pay compensation.