If you’ve arrived on this page, we’re betting it’s because you’ve suffered flight disruptions from Europe’s largest airline, Ryanair. You’re more than vexed and seeking Ryanair delayed flight compensation.
While Ryanair tickets may be unbelievably cheap, the airline doesn’t have the best reputation. It’s been repeatedly ranked ‘worst airline’, and isn’t without its controversies.
Although the budget airline claims to be the most punctual in the world, with over 20% of delayed flights, we’re not so sure…
Regardless of these potential white lies, whether a delayed, cancelled or overbooked Ryanair flight, WE’LL make sure they don’t get away with it!
At ClaimCompass, we’re well versed in securing flight delay compensation for passengers who have been let down by Ryanair.
We utilise our expertise and knowledge of airline passenger law to ensure Ryanair passengers don’t go home empty handed.
So, if you’re one of the lucky travellers due Ryanair flight delay compensation, rest assured you’ll get the money you are owed.
This guide will show you:
EU regulation 261 protects the rights of passengers, when they experience flight disruptions. According to the EU rules, you are eligible for compensation if:
- You were delayed for 3 or more hours
- Your flight took off from an EU airport, or landed in an EU airport
- Your flight delay was not a result of extraordinary circumstances (EC)
But what are extraordinary circumstances? Well, the EU says they’re circumstances outside of the airline’s control. So, this includes:
- Bird strikes
- Bad weather conditions
- Strikes (by airport OR airline staff)
- Political instability
- Closure of the airport
- Issues with air traffic control
And watch out because sometimes airlines are sneaky and include technical faults as EC, but don’t be fooled.
So, if the airline delays your flight because of issues with the fuel tank or the engine, you can still get your hands on some compensation.
However, you may be wondering if this still applies post-Brexit. Northern Ireland is of course no longer an European Union member. This in turn means that Ryanair is no longer an EU airline.
But, you can rest easy, because the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 has enshrined EC261 into UK law. This means EC261 still applies and you won’t be left empty handed.
In other words, panic over!
Navigating a claim for Ryanair flight delay compensation is not an easy task. There’s a lot of layers, complicated legal language, and loopholes.
You’re probably imagining a heap of paperwork and dreading the whole thing.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Here at ClaimCompass we handle the tough stuff. We’re experts in our field, so for us this is a walk in the park.
Simply enter your flight details into our free compensation calculator, and in no more than 3 minutes, you’ll discover your eligibility.
However, sometimes airlines try to pull the wool over passenger’s eyes when they launch a claim alone.
This means they may get out of paying travellers the full compensation amount.
Choosing US to deal with your compensation claims, means you won’t go into things blind.
WE will make sure the Irish airline doesn’t get away with any white lies and YOU are delivered the money you’re owed.
And the icing on the cake? We operate on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis. This means, if we don’t win your case, there’s not a penny to be paid!
Your flight delay compensation will be calculated based on distance travelled. So in accordance with EC261, the compensation amount for flight delays is:
But be careful, if you’re travelling over 3,500km and your flight ends up being delayed by 3-4 hours, the compensation you are entitled to will be halved.
A Ryanair flight delay may cause you to miss your connecting flight. If it does, good news, you could also be entitled to missed connection compensation.
In 2017 Ryanair introduced the purchase of connecting tickets. This introduction is essential for missed connection compensation. This is because in order to qualify for this compensation, both tickets must be under the same booking number (PNR).
So once again, EU261 has got your back.
You might be entitled to up to 600€ from the airline!
When it comes to a flight cancellation, you may be pulling your hair out. It can be pretty devastating when you find out your flight is not taking off!
Perhaps you’re one of thousands of passengers that had plans to visit Italy, and coronavirus has stood in your way, barring entry.
However you can claim compensation for your cancelled Ryanair flight, so it’s not ALL bad.
To get your hands on some of that sweet cash, you need to fulfil the following criteria:
- You were not informed of the cancellation
- You were informed less than 14 days in advance
- Ryanair rebooked you on an alternative flight, and you arrived at your final destination at least 2 hours late
However, if you cancelled the flight yourself, unfortunately, you won’t be getting your hands on any compensation.
And, if you were told about the cancellation over 14 days in advance, the airline has covered themselves and they do not owe you any money.
The amount of compensation you will receive is determined by the following
- The length of time you were delayed by if Ryanair reroutes you
- The distance of your flight
- When you were notified of the cancellation
Taking these different factors into consideration you will receive anywhere between 125€ (£105) and 600€ (£500).
However working out exactly what you are entitled to is not the easiest process if you take it on alone.
Use our free compensation calculator, and we’ll take care of the tricky stuff to get you your cancelled flight compensation!
If Ryanair cancels your flight EU regulation means you are entitled to either:
- A full refund of your ticket, or
- A rerouting on an alternative flight.
Under EU261, if you encounter a cancellation that causes you to be delayed by 2 or more hours, you are entitled to right of care by the airline. This includes:
- Food and refreshments vouchers
- Two phone calls or emails
- Hotel accommodation if you are stuck with an overnight delay
- Transportation from the hotel to the airport
The airline may not have time to allocate you a hotel and instead ask you to find your own. In this case make sure you keep hold of all your receipts!
If you want to get in touch with Ryanair customer service, the airline has different numbers based on the location you are calling from:
It is cheaper to use the airline’s live chat service. This service is operational:
- Monday-Friday from 6am-9pm
- Saturdays from 8am-6pm and,
- Sundays from 9am-6pm.
Alternatively, you can access the airline’s flight disruption expenses claim form .
When you launch your claim, it’s probably a good idea to find out whether Ryanair will actually payout first.
In the past the airline has faced legal action over unpaid claims, and it hasn’t received the greatest score in our ratings either.
On average it takes Ryanair around 53.8 days to respond to a claim. This scored a pretty terrible 1.1/10.
It scored slightly better for days to solve the claim, taking a total of 70.4 days scoring a solid 6.7/10.
Unfortunately, after claims were sent to court, Ryanair didn’t pay up for a whopping 145.2 days
So, yes Ryanair do pay compensation, but it will take them a fair while.
IATA code: FR
ICAO code: RYR
Did you know that Ryanair operates over 400 aircrafts, all of which are Boeing 737-800’s. The airline intends to expand its fleet to 585 by 2024!
The airline is always busy too, with an aircraft taking off every 45 seconds and its average number of daily flights is 2,400!
And if your flight anxiety is playing up before you take off, rest assured, the airline was voted the safest in the world in 2018.
It’s also never had a fatal accident in its whole time of operating flights! (Although it has had a fair few injuries on the books).
It operates from 14 hubs. Its largest base is located in London Stansted Airport, but it also has hubs in Glasgow, Dublin, Liverpool, Cork, Luton, and Shannon.
Internationally it also has hubs in:
Ryanair was a bit late to the game in terms of frequent flyer programs. It brought in the idea of a potential program last year.
The suggested program, namely Ryanair Choice, is not based on points, instead passengers buy membership for £199.
However its benefits are much the same as other frequent flyer programs. Some of the benefits include, fast-track security passes, free seating choice, and priority boarding.
But, don’t get too excited, its official launch won’t be any time soon!
If you’re a non-priority boarding passenger, you are only permitted to bring one bag with you for carry-on luggage. This must measure at 40cm x 20cm x 25cm, and must fit in the airline’s bag sizer.
For those with priority boarding, the cabin limitation is one small bag measuring at 40cm x 20cm x 25cm. An additional larger bag measured at 55 x 40 x 20cm is also allowed. The weight limitation is 10kg.
If passengers want to bring another bag, but have bought a non-priority ticket, they can add another bag to their booking. Passengers can do this at the airport bag drop desk.
The tab below provides specific data regarding the airline's on-time performance. It includes the amount of flights operated by the airline each month, which portion of these flight arrived on time (i.e with less than 15 minutes delay), which portion consists of delayed flights, and the average delay of their flights in minutes. Source: Flightstats.com
In its annual report for the financial year 2018, Ryanair claims an on-time performance of 88%, for over 600,000 flights operated. This means that only 12% of their flights arrived 15 minutes late or more, one of the best performances in the world. By comparison, the industry average is 25%, meaning that about 1 flight out of 4 arrive at least 15 minutes late to their destination.
However, since the data comes from the airline and not an independent third-party, these claims are to be taken with caution. Note also that Ryanair does not provide data regarding the average delay of their flights.
For these reasons, we would give Ryanair a 9.2 rating regarding flight performance, but this should be taken with caution and may not represent the actual performance of the Irish low-cost airline. What is not in doubt is Ryanair’s great on-time performance, especially for an airline of this size.
Unfortunately, Ryanair isn’t part of the most cooperative airlines when it comes to processing their passengers’ claims for delayed or cancelled flight. As mentioned at the beginning, the claim process is different because, contrary to most airlines, Ryanair limits the right of air passengers to be represented by a third party like ClaimCompass. They send their correspondence directly to the passenger rather than the company that was mandated to represent their passenger. This is problematic because some passengers do not want to take care of the process themselves, or very often lack the legal knowledge or access to tools to verify the claims of the airline. That being said, we are used to dealing with Ryanair and have already helped thousands of passengers get compensation from the Irish airline. Here is a closer look at Ryanair’s performance regarding claim processing.
Ryanair is slow to provide a statement regarding the compensation claim of their passenger. This delay is increased for passengers who requested the help of an agency like ClaimCompass, because Ryanair insists on communicating with the passenger only - as such, passengers need to forward the correspondence to the agency they have mandated in the first place because they did not wish to take care of the process. It takes on average 10 weeks for Ryanair to pay the due compensation to their client which is a result above average. Some claims, however, have to be taken to court, because of the airline refusal to pay compensation. In most cases, this happens when Ryanair claims that their flights were disrupted due to adverse weather conditions or ATC restrictions. When this happens, the process is significantly longer and passengers receive their compensation in twice as much time. It is worth noting that, being one of the biggest airlines in the world, Ryanair is facing a proportionally higher amount of compensation claims.
When it comes to overbooking, Ryanair claims that as policy, they do not overbook flights.
However, its policy also outlines that in the ‘unlikely event’ that a seat is not available, they will appeal for volunteers to give up their seats.
If not enough people give up their seats, passengers will be denied boarding involuntarily. After this, passengers will then be eligible for a rerouting or refund.
Likewise, passengers, if bumped due to seats being unavailable, are also entitled to compensation.
In line with EU law (now UK Law), you will only be entitled to denied boarding compensation if:
- You were denied boarding as a result of overbooking
- You arrived on time to check-in
- You did not give up your seat voluntarily
- You didn’t accept some kind of alternative compensation, like a compensation voucher
- You brought all the right travel documents with you
If you’re concerned that your Ryanair flight might be delayed, don’t worry the airline will hit you up with the information you need.
The airline will usually try and inform you of the delay as soon as possible!
You will be notified by text message 30 minutes before your flight’s original departure time, if your flight is delayed by 90 minutes.
If your flight is delayed by two or more hours, the airline will send you an email notifying you of the delay and present your options.
To keep updated you can also check out the airline’s live updates.
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