Ryanair loses High Court action against DAA

Ryanair today failed in it's High Court action to prevent the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) from making it sign a licensing and fee agreement before the airline installed 44 self service kiosks in the airport. 

The airline said that the terminal floor space at Dublin is already being double charged to airlines, firstly through the €15 departing passenger fee at Dublin Airport (which pays in full for the terminal space) and secondly through an annual €25,000 check in desk rental on every check in desk. The fee that the DAA was attempting to impose on Ryanair for the use of the SSKs was €52,000 per annum in total. During the two day hearing, the High Court heard that Ryanair had withheld payment of €8.4m in fees owed to the DAA in the row over the kiosks. The airline only paid over the sum due before proceedings in the Commercial Court got under way to recover the money. Mr. Justice MacMenamin said in the High Court that the decision by Ryanair to withhold the money had constituted a 'grossly disproportionate response'.

Following the decision in the High Court, Ryanair's Michael O'Leary said that the airline's "response  to this overcharging is we won't install these kiosks in Dublin. We will now bring forward plans to migrate all our Dublin passengers to web check in, so that we can avoid these abusive monopoly rentals."

The airline will now proceed with plans to install SSKs in Shannon Airport and also in Cork if it can reach an agreement with the Cork Airport Authority.