Airline should have provided care to passengers stranded as a result of ash cloud from eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, says court The budget airline Ryanair has been severely criticised for failing to look after a stranded passenger following the 2010 eruption of an Icelandic volcano in a ruling that imposes extra customer care responsibilities on airlines. The finding by the advocate general at the European court of justice is intended to ensure that travellers cannot be abandoned abroad even if flight disruption is beyond the control of an airline. “It does not appear to be disproportionate to impose on air carriers such an obligation to provide care in so far as they are free to pass on the resulting costs to airline ticket prices,” the advocate general, Yves Bot, said in a decision published on the court’s website. “That is a policy which has already been put into effect by Ryanair, which introduced a special levy in April 2011 in order to cover the costs incurred in providing care to passengers whose flights had been cancelled owing to the eruption of the Icelandic volcano.” The case arose from a claim submitted by an Irish passenger, Denise McDonagh, whose flight from Faro to Dublin, scheduled for 17 April 2010, was cancelled because of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. Much of European airspace was closed between 15 and 23 April 2010 due to the persistence of volcanic ash clouds.

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