A disabled man from Britain won a landmark case against Ryanair yesterday after it charged him for a wheelchair he needed to get from the check-in desk to the aircraft.
Community worker Mr Bob Ross (54), from north London, said the £18 ($32.60) fee was discriminatory and took the airline to court. Judge Crawford Lindsay, at the Central London County Court, said it was "unlawful" for Ryanair to charge Mr Ross and awarded him £1,336 (€2,420) in compensation.
Mr Ross, who has cerebral palsy and arthritis, normally uses crutches, but says he needs a wheelchair when moving through airport crowds and queues and over long distances.
His lawyers say Ryanair is the only airline in Britain that does not provide free wheelchairs.
He was forced to pay the fee at Stansted Airport, north of London, before a flight to Perpignan, southern France, in March 2002.
He said the ruling was good news for all disabled travellers.
"It was blatantly unfair that I should pay more to fly simply because of my disability," Mr Ross said outside the court yesterday. "Ryanair were operating a two-tier fares system - a cheap deal for non-disabled passengers but a raw deal for disabled travellers." In Britain, the Disability Rights Commission, a body set up by parliament to enforce disabled people's rights, said it may launch a class action against the airline for 35 other passengers.
"All right-thinking people knew that the charge was grossly unfair," said commission chairman Mr Bert Massie.
Ryanair said it would appeal against what it called a "defective" judgment.
"It should clearly be the responsibility of the very profitable airport terminal operators to provide disabled passenger assistance," Ryanair said in a statement. It said it will charge a 50 pence levy on all its passengers at Stansted and three other airports, to cover its costs of providing free wheelchairs from now on. - (Reuters)