O'Leary attacked over outburst on compensation law

A Scottish MEP has launched a ferocious attack on Ryanair's Mr Michael O'Leary over the airline chief's condemnation of the new EU compensation dealfor passengers "bumped off" flights.

Mr O'Leary claimed the legislation would drive up the cost of flights for passengers, launching an expletive-laden attack on the EU at a meeting in Brussels yesterday.

"We are not going to be shouldered with stupid legislation coming out of Brussels which has no effect but to make air travel less competitive," he told the European Policy Centre meeting.

He described the new rules as "ill-conceived", "stupid", "unfair" and "a dog's dinner of nothingness", he argued that compensation should be linked to ticket price and warned that the airline industry would challenge the new rules in the European courts. Mr O'Leary also attacked his "high-fare" rivals as "rip-off merchants" who were "raping" passengers.

However, Mr David Martin, MEP for Scotland, claimed today Mr O'Leary's "motormouth" reaction was solely driven by greed.

"His attack on the new compensation deal for passengers who are badlytreated by airlines like his can be explained in one word — greed," Mr Martin said. "He wants more for himself and less for everyone else."

"It has nothing at all to do with keeping fares low, giving passengers a better deal or improvements to service."

He asked why, if Ryanair is "so on the ball" and doesn't overbook flights as Mr O'Leary claims, "does the airline fear any impact from this legislation?"

Mr Martin said the EU legislation was intended to protect passengers and ensure there is a statutory minimum compensation that applies to all airlines.