Ryanair loses disability case

Ryanair has vowed to appeal after losing a case brought by a disabled passenger over wheelchair access at Stansted Airport. The no frills airline said it would appeal against the “defective judgement” in the case brought by the Disability Rights Commission on behalf of Robert Ross. Mr Ross has cerebral palsy and arthritis. While he can walk on crutches, the long distance through the airport at Stansted meant he had to use a wheelchair. As he was not travelling as a wheelchair passenger Ryanair refused to pick up the £18 charge that was payable each way.   Ryanair argues that it is BAA Stansted “that is out of step” because it does not provide free assistance to disabled people through the terminal building. It points out that over 80 of the 86 airports it operates to in Europe do so. A spokesman for Ryanair said “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.” The carrier added that it would now be levying a charge of 50pence per passenger in order to cover the cost of wheelchair assistance at Stansted, Gatwick, Dublin and Shannon airports, which do not provide mobility assistance free of charge. It said the levy would be withdrawn “if and when this appeal is successful.” But the disability ruling is small fry compared to the bad news Ryanair looks set to receive next week. The European Commission is expected to rule that the subsidies Ryanair received from Chaleroi airport were illegal – putting its whole business model in jeopardy.