Ryanair’s statement that it has stopped charging departure tax for flights booked after November 1 was not good enough, MEP Simon Busuttil said today.

In a statement, he said that for some reason, Ryanair had failed to confirm that it had not charged departure tax for flights departing after November 1 even if they were booked before.

Ryanair, Dr Busuttil said, had to refund all departure tax collected from customers who made their booking before November for flights departing after November 1. Otherwise it would find itself unfairly pocketing money collected as tax which was no longer due.

“More importantly, the airline should not charge any fees for refunding money that was collected without any legal justification. This would be outrageous as clients should not be made to pay for a mistake that was made by the company,” he said.

Dr Busuttil called on people caught in this situation to write to Ryanair to claim a refund and report the matter to the Department of Civil Aviation which was investigating the matter closely if they were not given their dues.