Lee-a-Roady Moor,
Your comparison to a hospital does not work. Two reasons - attendance at hospital is essential to our health and well being. Popping off to France isn't. Also we the tax payer pay for the provision of wheelchairs for everyone that needs one at hospital even if we never (hopefully) need one ourselves.
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Ryanair are right to call the 50p fare increase a tax and calculate it separately from the flight charge for a number of reasons.
Firstly, it is imposed as a result of a court decision in the UK alone thus it only applies to flights from the UK and secondly it applies to every such passenger regardless of how much they pay for the flight costs.
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This whole situation shows just how successful Ryanair have been in creating a product that the average member of the public takes for granted - the low cost flight.
15 years ago (and still today on some airlines) a 50p increase in the cost of a flight would be so insignificant that people would not bat an eye. However, when flying with Ryanair, 50p often represents over 50% of the flight fare!!!
Wonder why we don't complain when mainline carriers announce a fare increase of 50p on their £100 fares?
How much is it to travel cross London on a London Bus? They don't allow wheelchairs either. However, us tax payers have paid for the replacement of a large portion of the fleet with low floor wheelchair friendly busses!!
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I can see the next court case already -
Mrs Jones sues Ryanair on behalf of her 1 year old son;
In a court case, Mrs Jones alleged that Ryanair discriminated against her 1 year old son by not providing a wheel chair or buggie to transport the child from check-in to the gate. Ryanair provide the facility to others who are unable to walk the long distance involved.
She said that she was unable to carry her child the distance and that she couldn't be bothered to bring a buggie to the airport because she has another buggie at her second home in France.
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I think that we all need to get a grip.
If there was so much of a problem with Ryanair and as mentioned earlier travelling through Dublin - How come the hosting of the Special Olympics in Dublin last summer didn't result in thousands of court cases?
Regards,
DFC
PS - Not totally off topic but how come that most beople that have a disability preventing them from walking suddenly develop a further disability that prevents them from joining a Q at security? After all they are the one's sitting down!!