Helen Kirrane has successfully claimed £220 compensation from Ryanair after her flight from Dublin to London was delayed by three-and-a-half hours in September last year
Ryanair was told to pay £220 to a passenger after they made a note of an innocuous-sounding comment from the pilot.
Helen Kirrane seems to have triumphed over the budget airline after her compensation request was initially met with a refusal, following a three and a half hour delay to her flight. Despite the airline’s claims that air traffic control (ATC) restrictions were to blame—a scenario that would typically let them off the hook for compensation—Kirrane’s meticulous note-taking told a different story.
The canny customer didn’t quit despite the pushback, presenting evidence that her service was not delayed for the reasons Ryanair gave. She is now due £220 in compensation.
Writing in This is Money, Helen recounted how an announcement from the pilot before takeoff indicated that the aircraft was initially scheduled to fly to Birmingham, not London, thereby undermining Ryanair’s claim that ATC was responsible. Her diligent documentation extended to text messages sent to her boyfriend during the delay, which served as crucial, timestamped proof.
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Helen explained: “The texts to my boyfriend came in handy, because I was able to pin down the exact times I had taken off and landed to tot up the delay.
“The regulations state that for delays of more than three hours, on journeys of less than 1,500km – as mine was – you are entitled to compensation of £220. This is what I asked Aviation alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to demand. For flights going 1,500km or further, you can claim more – up to £520 for the longest delays.
In the UK, passengers who disagree with an airline’s compensation decision have the right to go to an ADR service to contest the decision. To do so, you must have complained to the airline directly and then received its response, or else given it eight weeks to respond.
Customers who travel with airlines including Ryanair, easyJet, Wizz Air and TUI are entitled to use a free Aviation ADR service, which is what Helen did. She uploaded all of the correspondence she had had with Ryanair, and included the notes she had taken.
“The ADR adjudicator agreed with my doubts about the delay’s cause. It turned out my flight had been delayed by three hours due to the late arrival of the aircraft from another flight. Ryanair decided to perform an aircraft change to minimise operational disruption. Only 14 minutes of the delay had been caused by air traffic control problems at London Gatwick,” Helen wrote.
The ADR sided with Helen, asking her to upload her bank details so that Ryanair can can pay her £220. The airline has 30 days to do so.
A Ryanair spokesperson said: “We do not comment on pending legal proceedings.”