Airline Says The Mistake Was An 'Admin Error'

Some of the passengers who had flights cancelled by strikes against Ryanair this summer received compensation checks from the airline that were not signed, forcing the airline to apologize for what it said was an "admin error".

Fox News reports that the airline said that the problem cropped up fewer than 190 of the more than 20,000 checks issued to compensate passengers for cancelled flights. “These checks were re-issued last week and we apologize sincerely for this inconvenience which arose out of our desire to issue these compensation checks quickly to our customers,” the airline said in a statement.

At least one passenger told the BBC that she was charged about $23 (20 euro) by her bank when she presented the unsigned check. Karen Joyce said she was on the phone with Ryanair's customer service for about 20 minutes before the airline employee hung up on her.

European law allows passengers to apply for compensation if their flights are cancelled due to strikes. Ryanair had initially said it would not compensate passengers for the cancelled flights because they were "caused by extraordinary circumstances" and that the unions were action "unreasonably."

(Image from file)

FMI: Source report