Ryanair investigated over charging parents to sit with their children | Ryanair
Ryanair, Europe’s largest low-cost airline, is facing investigation over the mandatory fee it charges parents to sit with their children.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the Irish carrier’s terms and conditions required at least one parent, including those with a disability, to sit with their children and billed them around £8 per flight for this.
The watchdog will investigate whether this is an unfair contractual term under consumer law. It is known that Ryanair is the only major airline from the UK that applies this fee.
Hayley Fletcher, the CMA’s senior director of consumer protection, said: “Our investigation will consider Ryanair’s approach to family seat bookings and how the cost is presented to consumers to determine whether they comply with consumer laws.
“Last year we told businesses to ensure the total price was shown in advance to customers who were not facing the possibility of real action by the CMA.”
Ryanair said it does not charge any fee for children to sit next to accompanying adults. However, parents and guardians must pay a reservation fee to sit with them.
The carrier’s rules state that at least one parent must sit in a “mandatory family seat” with children ages 2-11 when flying. This fee is charged for both outbound and return flights.
It costs between €4.50 and €13.50 to book one of these seats, which is equivalent to £4-12 and usually costs £8 one way. The CMA found this approach was used on most of Ryanair’s UK routes. For all other passengers, seat reservation is optional.
The CMA is investigating whether Ryanair’s approach amounted to charging parents to meet the airline’s child safety and disability obligations under aviation rules and is determining whether this practice complies with consumer law.
The investigation is specifically concerned with whether Ryanair’s contract terms were “unfair”, meaning they put customers at an unfair disadvantage.
The law applies a fairness test that asks whether the text alters the balance of rights and responsibilities in the contract too much in favor of the business. Unfair terms are not legally binding on customers and the CMA can take enforcement action to stop businesses from using them.
Other airlines offer to seat children with a parent or guardian without charging adults to reserve a seat, or to automatically assign seats for free at the time of booking.
As part of the investigation, the CMA will also examine whether the mandatory family seat charge was “trickled down” during the booking process without full transparency. “Drip pricing,” where consumers are shown the starting price but are hit with inevitable hidden fees later in the process, is banned in 2024.
The CMA has just begun its investigation and has stressed it has reached no conclusions about whether Ryanair broke the law. It said the investigation was part of its wider work to ease cost-of-living pressures and protect vulnerable consumers.
Since then Strengthening consumer powers Following the introduction of the law, which allows the watchdog to fine companies for breaches and secure refunds, the CMA launched an investigation into 15 businesses across sectors including ticketing, gyms, household goods and online reviews.
