Posted on June 01, 2010 by Fiona Hilliard

Michael O’ Leary and Ryanair are rubbing their hands together today, all set to challenge “ludicrous” claims for refunds from passengers stranded by the ash delays.

Never one to pull his punches, O’ Leary came out with some real gems this morning.

I especially love this one:

“There was no volcanic ash.  The airspace closure was entirely unnecessary.  We should not have to pay because some idiot spilled coffee on a map and created a cloud.  The only ash was between the ears of those at the Meteorological Office.”

Hahaha priceless. Obnoxious he might be, but sometimes you can’t help but laugh at the excuses he dreams up to weasel out of a bind.

Come on Michael, a volcano in Iceland erupted. Deal with it.

In keeping with EU regulations (why else would they do it?), the airline has already set aside €50 million to refund one million passengers affected by delays and cancelled flights.  It wouldn’t be Ryanair if there wasn’t a little bit of aggro however. O’ Leary is taking a number of claims to court so that he can get a referral to the European Court of Justice.

He seems pretty confident too, with plenty more ammunition up his sleeve.  When quizzed about EU regulations today he hit back with: “The EU regulations are absurd, discriminatory and unfair.  We will challenge about 20 ludicrous claims as a test case challenge to the regulations.  He insists one claim for €2,900 was from a passenger who paid just €34 for a flight to the Canary Islands.”

O’ Leary is also supporting a class action by airlines who are looking for compensation from the government for ash disruption.  However, he admitted that changing regulations on passenger compensation was much more important, insisting “There must be a force majeure (‘superior force’ or act of God’) clause in compensation regulations and some sort of regulation to the fare.”

Oh, so he does believe in volcanoes after all…