A judge in Barcelona has ruled that it is “abusive” for Ryanair to charge passengers 40 euros if they arrive at the check in without a boarding card and has “removed the obligation.”
Announcing the company would appeal the decision Ryanair added that if the airline was prevented from making the charges passengers arriving at the airport without boarding passes would not be permitted to fly.
The case against Ryanair was brought by Dan Miró, a solicitor, after the company demanded a 40 euro payment because he had failed to print off his boarding pass for his flight from Girona to Alghero, Italy.
The judge did not accept the argument that Ryanair offered a free boarding card, but on the Internet. She decided that the «given that Ryanair is a low cost airline does not permit altering basic contractual obligations and recuperating the costs from the passengers.” She found that in order to comply with international, European and national laws on air navigation airline companies are obliged to issue a ticket to the passenger.
“It is one thing for the airline to charge taxes for extra services and a completely different thing to charge taxes or penalizations in order to comply with their own obligations, inherent in the air transport contract, generating a disproportion and imbalance of charges against the consumer,” the Judge ruled.
It has been normal practice for some years that Ryanair passengers have been required to print off their own boarding passes before leaving for the airport. Failure to do so has attracted an obligatory surcharge of 40 euros.
Despite this ruling readers should be aware that Ryanair passengers arriving at the airport without a boarding pass may be prevented from flying.
