Ryanair won’t pay passengers

£26 fares won’t pay for meals and hotels, O’Leary says

Ryanair has said it will only compensate passenger the price of their fare and not for accommodation and meals and would challenge any claims in court, the Scotsman reports

Chief executive Michael O'Leary said: "There's no legislation designed that says any airline getting a fare of €30 (£26) should be reimbursing passengers many thousands of euros for hotel accommodation. It's absurd."

But the Air Transport Users Council (AUC) said European regulation 261/2004 required European airlines to offer meals, refreshments and hotel accommodation while passengers awaited rearranged flights home.

James Fremantle, industry affairs manager at the AUC, referring to accommodation rights, said: "The regulations make it quite clear you should provide assistance until you provide a new flight. They should be paying for it."

Travel insurers to pay?

Rochelle Turner, travel editor from Which? told BBC Radio 4 this morning that customer could claim on their travel insurance and leave the insurer to sue Ryanair.