Ryanair and easyJet have hit back at comments by Trading Standards that their priority boarding charges verge on fraud.

The complaints concern incidents where passengers who pay for priority boarding can't board the aircraft before non-paying passengers.

Bruce Treloar, who is Trading Standards Lead Officer for Holidays and Travel, told Times Online: “It is almost a fraud if you pay for priority boarding and you are not able to board first. It is misleading because you are not getting anything for the extra charge.”

He quoted the example of a holidaymaker from Burgess Hill, West Sussex, who paid for priority boarding, only to be marshalled onto a bus to be taken to the aircraft, which then filled up with non-priority boarding passengers . When the holidaymaker complained he was refused a refund.

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Treloar added: “Airlines should refund passengers if they don’t get priority boarding – how on earth can the airlines withhold payment?”

Ryanair, which yesterday extended priority boarding charges to passengers who check-in online, has rubbished the comments in usual ebullient fashion. A spokeswoman told Times Online: “The suggestion that priority boarding passengers who don't get to board the aircraft first should be refunded is absurd.

“In Ryanair, priority boarding passengers who are in the priority boarding queue at the time when boarding starts, always get to board the aircraft first. If, however, priority boarding passengers aren't in the queue when boarding starts, then the fault lies with that passenger, not with the airline.”

The spokeswoman added that Ryanair uses buses to carry passengers to its aircraft on less than 1 per cent of its flights, but in these cases “priority boarding passengers get to board the bus and the aircraft in priority”.

The comments appear to contradict those of newly appointed Director of Commercial Revenue, Sinead Finn, who spoke to Travel Editor Steve Keenan at an industry event yesterday.

Finn said that where Ryanair uses buses, priority boarding passengers are loaded onto a separate bus to board the plane first.

Meanwhile easyJet, which uses buses to board passengers more often than Ryanair, says its priority boarding charge, “Speedy Boarding” is lower where buses are used – £4 instead of £7.50. In addition, Speedy Boarding passengers are directed to the front of the bus and these doors are opened first when it reaches the aircraft, the carrier claims.

However, the spokeswoman added Speedy Boarding costs vary depending on length of the flight. "If you are on a longer flight you pay more for Speedy Boarding as you may have a stronger desire for a particular seat on a longer flight and therefore shorter flights incur the lower charge for speedy boarding", she said.

On the subject of refunds, easyJet claims not to offer refunds for Speedy Boarding. Meanwhile, Ryanair says it has on occasion refunded priority boarding charges, but usually in cases of flight cancellation.

Treloar says he is looking to bring charges: “If there’s an inaccurate statement on an airline website we can look into taking criminal action.”

He said Trading Standards would look to the Office of Fair Trading to take national action over Priority Boarding charges under the Enterprise Act, but said they needed to gather evidence that consumers have been deceived.

He's not just looking for incidents of priority boarding passengers using the same bus as non-paying passengers. He told Times Online: “If it gets to a stage where 70 per cent of people are paying for priority boarding there is not much advantage – if we hear complaints we can feed this through to the OFT.”

He also added that new consumer laws being introduced next week could pave the way for civil action.

“On May 26 the Consumer Protection Regulation comes into effect. This gives us more powers – we can take individual action if consumers are being mislead,” he told Times Online. “Armed with this new law we will be able to help consumers.”

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