Turning up “only two minutes late” for check-in at Brussels Airport (BRU) on Nov. 20, 2024, as Jonathan Murphy told the Circuit Civil Court, he found the gate closed and his flight impossible to reach.
Murphy, head of a Brussels EU Inter Pares programme, has failed in his attempt to legally demand Ryanair compensation for the 250 euros flight he could not board and the 100 euros transfer costs for his alternative flight the next morning. He represented himself in the Small Claims Court, where his claim was finally thrown out over a year after the incident.
What happened?
To ensure the flight crew has enough time for preparation before take-off, including fuel checks and passenger-baggage reconciliation, check-in closures are operated based on strict rules from airport operation managers.
These rules, compliant with EU regulations, stipulate a 40-minute cut-off deadline for all passengers boarding a flight.
Ryanair’s representative, barrister Kenneth P. Hyland, stated that the company was in no way entitled to disregard the regulations imposed on them and that facilitating Murphy’s boarding would have fallen out of the scope of their powers.
Why did it happen?
Murphy had claimed his phone was stolen before the flight, which prevented him from finalising the check-in online and from arriving in time for the check-in cut-off at the airport.
Jessica Brady, Ryanair’s ground operations front-of-house procedures and training manager, said that if Ryanair had allowed Murphy to check in, the process of manually paying the check-in fee and the usual passport and boarding formalities would have resulted in a breach of the regulation by eight to 10 minutes.
The flight to Dublin (DBU), which Murphy was meant to board, ended up being held on the ground for an additional four hours due to a snowstorm, but Judge Browne said that had been out of Ryanair’s hands.
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