Civil Aviation Authority threaten Ryanair with legal action

Following the cancellation of thousands of Ryanair flights in recent days, the Civil Aviation Authority have threatened the airline with legal action under the Enterprise Act 2002.

According to reports, the CAA insists the airline have failed to make the rights of their passengers known amid the chaos of multiple cancellations.

It is understood that while an airline is not obliged to pay compensation if they give more than two weeks notice of a cancellation, they are obliged to offer a flight on a another airline and fund the transfers to and from the alternate airports.

According to a report in The Independent, the CAA first contacted Ryanair on September 18 after the airline's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, stated that Ryanair was not obliged to reroute passengers on other airlines.

The CAA now argues that notification provided to the 400,000 passengers affected by Ryanair's cancellations fails to highlight the airline's obligations.

"The email refers only to a reroute on a Ryanair flight and contains no information about the possibility of rerouting on another airline," explains CAA’s chief executive, Andrew Haines.

“It also refers to the possibility of rerouting from different departure or destination airports but fails to inform passengers that Ryanair is obliged to bear the cost of transferring passengers to those other airports.”

According to The Independent, the airline are now seeking to address the concerns raised by the CAA, with a spokesperson confirming: "“We are in correspondence with the CAA ."