Courts in the Balearics are requiring Ryanair to compensate passengers for cancellations caused by cabin crew strike action last summer. Some 20,000 passengers in the Balearics are affected, many of whom have made claims to Ryanair.
The first judgements made by the courts are based on Ryanair having failed to meet minimum service levels established by the national ministry of development for flights to and from the mainland. These levels should in fact have been 100%.
One of the rulings applies to a couple and their child. The compensation is 928 euros for a flight to Nuremburg on 25 July. Ryanair accepted the repayment of the cost of the tickets but not financial compensation in respect of the cancellation that was made a week before the flight.
The court decision understands that there were exceptional circumstances but has followed the line of argument adopted by the European Court of Justice, which maintains that a strike is a company's internal matter and one for it to manage. Ryanair, however, showed that it did not intend to seek a negotiated solution with employees in order to prevent the strike and therefore to mitigate the impact on passengers.
The airline has been rebuked for not having met the service levels required by the ministry. The consequence of this was that only 59% of flights operated.