Ryaniar battle Class Actions
June 14 2010, 5:00 amThe BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is terrible and tragic example of humanity with a ferocious appetite for oil. You could argue that this demonstrates humanity’s dependency is a weakness which jeopardises our very planet and so the rig should never have been there at all.
You could also argue that instead of spending billions on drilling for oil, that money could have been used to setup solar energy farms in places like New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, because when we do run out of oil, not just solar energy but all forms of renewable energy will be imperative.
Here in the UK we aren’t blessed three hundred days of sun a year. However being and Island nation with a huge coast line we should really putting our eggs in the wave power and wind power technology baskets. If anything comes from this disaster it should be the worldwide understanding that we cannot continue burning fossil fuels at this rate without thinking about the impact and how to deal with it
Whilst one manmade disaster continues to strain the Anglo American friendship, a small natural disaster is just settling down. The Icelandic volcano which spat spewed volcanic ash into the atmosphere which grounded planes and cost companies and economies billions.
When passengers did return home, Ryanair was apparently inundated with compensation claims. The sheer scale of the legal challenge Ryanair faces is like a flashback to the Enron class action lawsuits. The Dublin based carrier at first refused to pay the compensation claims of about 300,000 passengers who were caught up in travel chaos.
The Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary has said that the airline would attempt to force changes in the regulations by rejecting up to twenty of the most expensive claims. He stated “We will take on 10 or 20 of the most ludicrous claims. We have claims coming from bastards who paid €30 (£25) [for a ticket] and are seeking €3,000 back. We will take a few of those as test cases”.
The airline is expected to take on the most contentious compensation claims in local courts and then take the cases to the European Court, where if they rule in favour of Ryanair, the European Parliament will be forced to cap EU261 payments.
Michael O’Leary went on to say that the European Regulators and Britain’s civil aviation Authority made a “complete dog’s balls” of the situation by shutting European airspace.
