Ryanair ordered to pay damages for reneging on 'free flights' offer to millionth customer

Ryanair's millionth customer was awarded €67,500 (£43,000) in damages yesterday at Ireland's High Court because the budget airline reneged on its promise to give her free flights for life.

Jane O'Keeffe, 35, was given the "free flights" prize during a champagne celebration and amid much publicity in 1988 because she was the millionth person to check in.

But Mr Justice Kelly found that Ryanair had breached its contract with Ms O'Keeffe when it started restricting the offer nine years later. He said that Ryanair's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, was "hostile and aggressive" when the winner, from Dublin, contacted the airline to complain.

In a handed-down judgment, Mr Justice Kelly said: "The whole event was designed to, and did in fact, attract enormous publicity. It was on radio and television news bulletins that evening and night."

He said that although no formal contract had been drawn up, Ms O'Keeffe, a 21-year-old secretary when she won the prize, had used the offer until 1997 without any difficulties.

"Her use of the free travel facility was on any view modest," he said. "During most years she took three or four flights and certainly never exceeded five. Despite the lack of documents the arrangement worked well."

But in 1997, when she was six months pregnant, her attempts to book a flight to Glasgow to visit her family hit a stumbling block. She was told by the airline that the offer was restricted to 12 flights a year.

She contacted the chief executive when the marketing department, through which she normally dealt, delayed processing her booking. "She says that he was extremely hostile to her from the start. He asked her who did she think she was phoning up demanding flights," the judge said. "She suggested she was being very badly treated."

Although she did not have a written contract, Ms O'Keeffe had the press clippings and recorded footage of the prize ceremony, which was played during the court hearing.

Mr O'Leary, who was marketing manager at the time of the prize-giving, "told her not to phone anyone in Ryanair again and to send in the tape and that he would look into it", the judge said.

"I found the plaintiff a more persuasive witness than Mr O'Leary and I therefore find as a fact that the version of events given by the plaintiff is what occurred. I reject Mr O'Leary's assertion that he was not hostile or aggressive or bullying towards the plaintiff. I find that he was," Mr Justice Kelly said.

He added that he was "satisfied that an enforceable contract" had been made between the airline and Ms O'Keeffe. "I am quite satisfied therefore, that the defendant has been in breach of its contractual obligations to the plaintiff."

Ryanair offered Ms O'Keeffe a settlement during the hearing, which she rejected, saying that she no longer trusted the company.

After the verdict a Ryanair spokeswoman said that the airline was "very satisfied" with the outcome and confirmed that it would not launch an appeal. She added that the airline was "pleased that the matter had at last been brought to a conclusion".