Kids left gutted by Ryanair’s £2k charge
A group of young athletes have been left devastated after being slapped with a near £2000 bill by Ryanair over a COVID-hit training camp.
The swimmers have been hit with the massive financial blow by the airline for abiding by government advice and postponing their trip.
The group, from Perth City Swim Club, have accused Ryanair of callously cashing in on the pandemic and leaving a question mark over the viability of the camp.
A group of 14 swimmers from the club’s Gold squad had been booked a year in advance to attend the T3 training centre in Tenerife during the October school holiday.
But they have followed UK Government advice against non-essential travel, and Scottish Government advice to avoid going abroad, and called off this year’s camp.
The club immediately advised Ryanair that they wanted to reschedule the same booking for the same flights in October 2021 - and have been told it will cost them an extra £1700 “admin” fee.
Club president Carol McPartland accused the airline of cashing in on the pandemic and shattering the dreams of a group of promising swimmers.
She said: “We know businesses, including airlines, are having a tough time of it, but Ryanair is simply exploiting the situation to their own advantage.
“There is no refund option at all and, despite what Ryanair might advertise, these were not cheap flights. They cost around £300 for each child.
“The kids in our performance squad have done a lot of fundraising to make the camp viable and they were all really looking forward to it.
“These camps are a gateway to national and international success and Perth City’s world champion and Olympic medallist Stephen Milne was on last year’s trip.
“The pandemic has been really hard for the kids, especially as they have not been able to swim at all for six months, and this is just a huge kick in the teeth from Ryanair.
“We have been completely reasonable with them, but we’re now left in a situation where we don’t know if the kids can raise enough money to pay this extra bill.”
Carol pointed out that it was impossible for the group - aged from 13-16 - to go this year as the sport’s governing body would not have granted a licence.
She said quarantine rules would also have meant the children having to miss a combined six months of schooling upon their return if they risked flying to Spain.
“All we asked for was a fair crack of the whip, just to give these kids something to look forward to next year,” added Carol. “They’ve not done anything wrong.
“Ryanair have been offering credit vouchers to people taking the risk of booking now. That seems incredibly unfair on customers like us, who booked well before the pandemic was even known about.
“It would be easy for Ryanair to scrap this “admin” fee and that is all we are asking for.
“I have no doubt they will be re-selling the seats that we have given up next month, so they are doubly cashing in at the expense of our youngsters.”
She said the former Scottish Swim Club of the Year’s swimmers had been hit with another severe blow after the recent storms caused huge flooding at their main training pool.
“Perth Leisure Pool remains out of action for the foreseeable future and finding alternative venues has been very difficult and involves considerable extra expense.
“This club is run by and for volunteers, so we rely on goodwill and it’s unfortunate there has been none of that from Ryanair.
“One of our coaches for Tenerife is an NHS nurse who is giving up a week of her holiday to help these kids.
“These are great kids, who work hard in their sport and they deserve a break.”
Ryanair’s press office continued issuing “banter” social media posts about the pandemic this week, but failed to respond to any attempts to contact them for comment.