A showdown between two Irish heavyweights is brewing, as the Office of Fair Trading’s Irish-born chief John Fingleton warned he may clamp down on Ryanair’s bewildering ticket payment system.
Fingleton attacked the no-frills carrier, led by his motormouth compatriot Michael O’Leary for charging customers when they used a specific type of bank card.
Ryanair last month started levying a £5 fee for a one-way ticket on transactions paid for with the Visa Electron card, which had previously been the only card to escape the additional cost.
Customers can now only avoid the charge by using a Prepaid Master-Card.
Fingleton called the practice ‘puerile’ and ‘childish’ and warned the OFT ‘might or might not go running after something like that’.
It is not the first time that the watchdog has taken a swipe at Ryanair.
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The OFT last year forced the carrier to improve the transparency of its website and other advertising.
Ryanair rejected the watchdog’s criticisms, saying that its services were for ‘the everyday Joe Bloggs’, not ‘the overpaid John Fingletons’.
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