The low-cost airline, Ryanair, has decided not to apply the 50 per cent residents’ discounts on internal flights which are not booked by Internet. All bookings which have been made by telephone or in the sales offices in airports will now not have this discount applied. In other words, if a resident needs to fly urgently he will have to pay an exorbitant price if he cannot book online within six hours of departure time. On Tuesday a last-minute ticket to fly to Madrid cost an exorbitant €214, three times more than the same ticket acquired six hours earlier on the Web.
The Balearic Govern Transport Minister, Joana María Amengual, alerted the population about this practice, which is completely illegal, as the air and maritime companies are obliged by law to apply the discount on tickets for use by island residents. She commented that anyone falling foul of the airline should present a reclaim to the Consumers Association or to the State Air Security Agency, whose web site can be found at www.seguridadaerea.es.
According to the airline, “our systems do not permit telephone operators to apply discounts, and therefore the full price has to be paid”.