Originally Posted by
blueplatinum
No it is not. For some reason the EU think airlines have to take responsibility for flights which do not operate due to circumstances entirely out of their control. This often costs them many times the price of the original flight ticket in compensation. A totally unfair rule. To counteract this FR make a €2 per flight charge which creates a fund to pay for these compensation claims. It is the regulators fault not FR's. I am sure many other airlines are effectively doing the same thing by building this into their prices - any "risk management" department would recommend this as a matter of course. The only difference is that FR itemise it separately thus making it clear that PAX are being charged for this.
One thing FR's charges do not lack is tranparency.
I note that Ryanair claim that the volcano catastrophe last year cost them €50m (Ryanair press release
here).
At 70 million passengers in a full year they will now make enough on "EU261" charges to cover the costs of disruption of the scale of 2.8 catastrophic airspace closures caused by Icelandic volcanoes
per year.
Does that seem "transparent" or proportional to you? Or could it be that - perhaps?
- there's a teensy-weensy little bit of profit-taking going on here?
Incidentally I completely agree that other airlines also have to cover the cost of these additional EU-imposed charges. They don't itemise them separately and then inflate the bill. They *do* itemise fuel surcharges separately and inflate that bill - I'm not suggesting that they are at all virtuous. But Ryanair is doing with the EU261 charge exactly what it loudly decries other carriers for doing with their fuel surcharges.