Ryanair is to levy 70 cents a flight on all customers following the court ruling against its wheelchair charge yesterday.
The decision to add the levy comes after a London court ruled that the airline acted illegally in charging a disabled passenger £18 for the use of a wheelchair.
Describing yesterday's judgment as "defective", Ryanair argued that airports should absorb the cost of providing wheelchairs and said it intends to appeal the ruling.
"It should clearly be the responsibility of the very profitable airport terminal operators to provide disabled passenger assistance through their buildings on a free-of-cost basis. These costs should not be imposed on the airlines, particularly when - as in the case of Mr Ross [who took the court proceedings\] and Ryanair - the fare paid by Mr Ross to fly to the south of France was just half the cost of providing wheelchair assistance to get him through the terminal building in Stansted," a company statement said.
Of the 86 European airports which Ryanair operates to, only four - Stansted, Gatwick, Dublin and Shannon - do not provide a free wheelchair service.
Yesterday's court ruling forcing Ryanair to absorb the charge will apply only to the two airports in the UK jurisdiction. The charge for wheelchair use at the Irish airports is €20.
In its statement Ryanair said it regretted the levy "but this defective County Court decision leaves us with no alternative. This levy will be withdrawn if and when this appeal is successful." A spokeswoman was unable to confirm last night how the airline had arrived at the 70 cent figure.
Ryanair would have to provide a wheelchair service to about 650,000 passengers from the two London airports each year to justify the charge, said the chairman of the Air Transport Users' Council, Mr Tadhg Kearney.
"If you consider that Ryanair carries 24 million passengers in a year, a levy this size would mean in the region of 650,000 people needed the service, and that just seems a bit rich."
However, he said it was essential people with disabilities did not have to bear the cost of the service. "People with reduced mobility are entitled to this service and the cost should be shared universally among all travellers."
The Equality Authority has received a number of complaints about Ryanair applying the wheelchair charge in Irish airports, said chief executive Mr Niall Crowley.
"We are currently working on a number of complaints, but their haven't been any cases heard yet . . . I don't believe this service is in the high-cost area, we are talking about reasonably accommodating disabled passengers."
Under a regulation due to be announced by the European Commission in March, wheelchairs will have to be provided free to people with disabilities or reduced mobility. "I am calling on Ryanair to rethink their decision and provide courtesy wheelchairs in advance of an EU Directive which will make it compulsory to do so," said Mr Michael Ringrose of People with Disabilities in Ireland.
