Ryanair has lost a years-long legal battle in Italy over charging people extra to book seats next to minors or passengers needing assistance.
What’s the row about?
A ruling issued by Italy as far back as 2021 prohibits any airline operating in the country from applying fees to reservations where customers are trying to choose seats next to each other because the booking concerns children under the age of 12 or people with additional needs. The matter, said the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC), ultimately comes down to safety, for which airlines bear responsibility.
But Ryanair reacted in typically feisty form, with a representative accusing the body of meddling with business practices under the guise of passenger protection. “It is misleading for ENAC to categorise its interference with the airline’s commercial freedom to set prices, as a safety issue,” it said.
Ryanair lost the case at an appeal court in 2022, but pushed back again, meaning the issue went to a higher instance for another legal opinion.
Profits before safety?
Throughout the Italian dispute, Ryanair, which charges passengers up to €30 to choose their seats, has insisted it “does not charge any fee for children under 12 travelling with an adult” and told Reuters news agency that its pricing structure is in fact in alignment with the 2021 rule.
Meanwhile ENAC has argued the carrier had not changed its policy or updated its online systems to reflect its new obligations. Essentially, the authorities noted, the airline offers passengers the chance to avoid paying or to claim the seat booking fee back but only after a long and complicated process of navigating options. This is a way of doing business, ENAC President Pierluigi Di Palma said, that puts airline profits before safety regulations as well as passenger rights.
Now after three years of wrangling, the country’s highest administrative judicial body, the Council of State, has confirmed that ENAC’s stance is correct.
Same rule different country
Aviation experts across the Atlantic will be watching with interest since Italy is not the only nation tackling airline practices in this area. The United States’ Department of Transportation is also introducing similar legislation to force airlines to allow families to sit together where children under the age of 13 years old are part of the group. Being “seated together” ideally means in the same row, but where that preference is not possible to implement, seats across the aisle from each other or in front of or behind each other also meet the requirement. As in Italy, the regulations are intended to be applicable to any airline, domestic or overseas, operating in the US.
