Ryanair is Europe's top low-cost airline

Irish low-cost airline Ryanair was today convicted of misleading customers about the price of flights.

A jury at the UK Chelmsford Crown Court found that the airline was guilty of six breaches of the Consumer Protection Act. Trading Standards officers, claimed that Ryanair had failed to make clear the full cost of seats because the cost of insurance and tax was not included in the initially advertised price on the company's website.

Ryanair denied any offence and said the prices were not misleading because customers were told that the fare did not include tax charges. Sentencing has been deferred.

The charges relate to the cost of flights from London Stansted to various European destinations.

Michael O Leary, Ryanair CEO said that the breaches of the UK Consumer Protection Act were committed four years ago and have been corrected for the past two years.

In related news, Ryanair, announced record advance bookings at its new Shannon, Ireland base, which starts on 3rd May 2005. In just 3 months since the 9 new routes were announced, over 200,000 bookings have been recorded on the Shannon routes. In the first year of operations, Ryanair expect to carry over 1.5 million passengers through its new base at Shannon Airport.

Speaking in Shannon today, Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary said:

“Over ONE MILLION European visitors will travel this year to Shannon and the Mid West of Ireland sustaining 1,500 jobs in the tourism industry thanks to Ryanair’s low fares and Shannon airport’s low costs.

“To celebrate these record bookings we are offering 10,000 free* seats on our Shannon routes to the UK: Glasgow, Liverpool, Nottingham and London (Luton, Gatwick and Stansted) and 10,000 seats from only €9.99* on our Shannon/Europe routes (Stockholm, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Brussels, Paris, Milan and Barcelona). We would urge passengers to book early at www.ryanair.com as seats this cheap will be snapped up quickly”.

Booking Period	Wed 2nd March – midnight Sun 6th March 2005
Travel Period	3rd May 2005 – 30thJune 2005
Applicable days	Mon – Thurs
Blackout Periods	26/05/05 – 30/05/05 & 02/06/05 – 06/06/05
*One way exclusive of airport taxes and charges