Ryanair has rejected claims it still owes Irish customers around €20m in refunds.

The Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) has said the airline owes the refunds to customers in Ireland as well as "vast amounts of monies" to customers in other European countries.

ITAA Chief Executive Pat Dawson told the Oireachtas Transport Committee this afternoon that there is a backlog of customer refunds waiting to be cleared.

“There is a logjam and it is being slowed down,” he said. “It is not the travel agents or the consumer; it is being slowed down by Ryanair, the payments.

“We figure that in Ireland alone, there is about €20m due back to the customers of Ireland.”

Refunds

He told Newstalk that some families are awaiting on refunds worth up €1,200 from the airline, and claimed the situation was the same all over Europe.

“Also, we are worried that the many vouchers that were issued instead of cash are only valid for 12 months,” he said.

“They are now expiring and we have no direction whatsoever about what is going to happen to those.”

Travel agents

In a statement this afternoon, Ryanair rejected the claims, insisting that it owes no money to any “unauthorised agents,” noting that it does not deal with travel agents on its website.

“All refunds for COVID-cancelled flights are not due to unauthorised travel agents, but rather directly to the passenger,” said the airline.

“The CAR (Commission for Aviation Regulation) has confirmed that ‘any payments such as reimbursement or compensation must go directly to the passenger.’”

The airline said there are only a “tiny number” of refunds still outstanding to customers, noting that these are cases where the customer has yet to send in a refund request.

“Some unauthorised travel agents are delaying these passenger refund requests because they will expose the overcharging of passengers by these unauthorised agents,” said the airline.

“Many of whom charge higher fares or excessive fees (up to €50) just to book a short haul Ryanair flight costing just €9.99.”

Irish aviation

Today’s transport committee also heard that the Irish aviation industry will cease to exist if the Government does not urgently intervene.

The ITAA and the Irish Air Line Pilots Association (IALP) warned TDs that their calls for help have been ignored by Government since the onset of the pandemic.

The ITAA said the industry will collapse in Ireland without bespoke supports.

It warned that the industry will then largely be managed out of the UK, which will mean fewer protections for Irish customers.

With reporting from Kacey O'Riordan