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Ryanair on Swedish consumers’ ‘black list’

Discount airline Ryanair flouts rulings by Sweden’s National Board for Consumer Complaints (ARN) more than any other company.

The airline has landed at the bottom of a “black list” of rogue companies published by consumer advocacy magazine Råd & Rön.

The list ranks companies based on their compliance with ARN rulings.

Ryanair has failed to comply with ten new ARN rulings ordering the company compensate travelers between 2000 to 7000 kronor ($320 to $1130) for delayed and cancelled flights.

In 2006 and 2007, ARN ruled in favor of passengers demanding compensation from Ryanair in 35 separate disputes. But in only nine instances did the airline follow the agency’s recommendations.

In failing to pay travelers, the airline may also be failing to follow EU regulations governing airline’s obligations to passengers.

Last fall, Sweden’s Consumer Ombudsman (KO) took Ryanair to court for not paying passengers the compensation they deserve.

The case involved a Swedish couple flying from Brussels to Stockholm who was forced to wait two days for another flight after the original flight was cancelled shortly before takeoff.

“We and Ryanair have different interpretations of EU rules,” said ARN spokesperson Torsten Palm to news agency TT.

Palm noted that the question of which party’s interpretation of the rules is correct will be decided in court, although he gave no indication of when the case may be heard.

In addition to Ryanair, Råd & Rön’s latest list of companies accused of bad behavior includes a number of car companies. Handymen are also well represented due to disputes over kitchen and bathroom remodeling projects.

RYANAIR

UPDATE: Ryanair passenger jet makes emergency landing in Berlin over ‘fake bomb threat’

Polish police said Monday they were investigating a fake bomb threat that forced a Ryanair passenger plane travelling from Dublin to Krakow to make an emergency landing in Berlin.

UPDATE: Ryanair passenger jet makes emergency landing in Berlin over 'fake bomb threat'
A Ryanair flight making an emergency landing

The flight from Dublin to Krakow made the unexpected diversion after a reported bomb threat, German newspaper Bild Zeitung said.

“We were notified by the Krakow airport that an airport employee received a phone call saying an explosive device had been planted on the plane,” said regional police spokesman, Sebastian Glen.

“German police checked and there was no device, no bomb threat at all. So we know this was a false alarm,” he told AFP on Monday.

“The perpetrator has not been detained, but we are doing everything possible to establish their identity,” Glen added, saying the person faces eight years in prison.

With 160 people on board, the flight arrived at the Berlin Brandenburg airport shortly after 8 pm Sunday, remaining on the tarmac into early Monday morning.

A Berlin police spokesperson said that officers had completed their security checks “without any danger being detected”.

“The passengers will resume their journey to Poland on board a spare aeroplane,” she told AFP, without giving more precise details for the alert.

The flight was emptied with the baggage also searched and checked with sniffer dogs, German media reported.

The passengers were not able to continue their journey until early Monday morning shortly before 4:00 am. The federal police had previously classified the situation as harmless. The Brandenburg police are now investigating the case.

Police said that officers had completed their security checks “without any danger being detected”.

“The Ryanair plane that made an emergency landed reported an air emergency and was therefore immediately given a landing permit at BER,” airport spokesman Jan-Peter Haack told Bild.

“The aircraft is currently in a safe position,” a spokeswoman for the police told the newspaper.

The incident comes a week after a Ryanair flight was forced to divert to Belarus, with a passenger — a dissident journalist — arrested on arrival.

And in July last year, another Ryanair plane from Dublin to Krakow was forced to make an emergency landing in London after a false bomb threat.

READ ALSO: Germany summons Belarus envoy over forced Ryanair landing

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