RYANAIR chief executive Michael O’Leary has issued a legal threat to agents who are considering charging service fees for selling his airline.
O’Leary has pledged to take to court one agent from each of the countries Ryanair serves in order to set a legal precedent banning additional fees to customers.
The airline has already won a case in Ireland which ruled such fees were illegal and has one pending in Sweden.
Ryanair has turned its attention to UK agents after retailers in Londonderry started charging for selling tickets on the carrier’s new service to Stansted.
O’Leary said:”Agents are breaking their International Air Transport Association sales agreement with these charges. Anyone who does so is acting illegally.
“We will take an agent from each country to set a precedent. We won the case in Ireland hands down.”
He claimed agents were chancing their arm with the charges as Ryanair already paid 7.5% commission – more than some larger scheduled carriers.
O’Leary is especially annoyed with agents in Londonderry charging a fee because until this summer they did not have a service to London they could sell.
Four retailers were sent letters warning them of action and all have backed down from the fees.
He did not name the agents he was unhappy with, but said it was not multiples Lunn Poly and Thomas Cook as they were refusing to sell Ryanair.
The multiples haven’t sold Ryanair since the carrier cut commission from 9% in 1997.
Ryanair’s tough stance on the legality of service fees does not have the support of other low-cost carriers. A spokesman for EasyJet accused Ryanair of complaining unnecessarily. “We have no problem with service fees. It is an agent’s right to charge,” he said.
ABTAchief executive Ian Reynolds conceded Ryanair may have a case with some individual agency agreements, but he defended the use of extra fees if agents were struggling to survive on a reduced commission rate.
Reynolds pointed out that IATA is drawing up a document with ABTA on service fees and therefore it had agreed to their use.
“It is absolute rubbish to say service fees are a breach of regulations as IATA recognises the fees,” said Reynolds.