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1 Mar
A Polish woman living in Cork has paid Ryanair’s overweight luggage fare for baggage of children’s clothes she is bringing to Poland for Ukrainian refugees.
Karina Traczyk lives in Cobh and is planning to travel home to Poland on Tuesday evening with bags of clothes to be donated to a Polish volunteer group helping refugees fleeing Ukraine amid the country’s crisis.
Karina and her partner Peter Kidney say they are angry after being asked to pay the €44.50 overweight baggage fee by Ryanair at Cork Airport as the luggage is 5 kilograms heavier than allowed.
Ryanair have clarified the rules saying that while the airline do offer exemptions in charitable circumstances, they said they need to be told in advance and that agents cannot make exceptions.
Karina booked two 20kg bags, but after packing, her luggage ended up being 45kg.
The couple say they had already paid €89 to bring 40kg of children’s clothes to be donated in Poland and say they were given no leeway when attempting to explain the situation to Ryanair staff and Cork Airport higher-ups.
Karina said: “I contacted Ryanair, pleading to chat with an agent to let me take that additional weight… but he insisted I need to purchase another 20kg bag.”
Speaking to CorkBeo, Peter said “My partner was due to go home to Poland anyway,
“And with what’s happening in Ukraine, she wanted to be able to do something,
“She got in touch with a local volunteer group in Poland who sent over a list of things they needed, children’s socks and things like that.”
Karina organised a collection in Cobh ahead of her flight which raised a “whopping“ €1,300 in 24 hours.
She said their “carload” of clothes was mostly underwear, socks and pyjamas for refugee children.
“We ended up spending €1,200 in Penneys in Wilton,” said Peter, “and the staff there were just great and everyone who helped was great.”
“When we were told we were overweight we did try and get in touch with Ryanair, it was only 5kg,” said Peter, “we told the agent what we were doing, we got in touch with people higher up, but we got nowhere and we had to pay it anyway.”
Karina said “that €45 can buy milk and bread for two to three families for a week, I would rather keep (the money) for refugees.”
In a statement to CorkBeo, a Ryanair spokesperson said that the "If pre-notified by a charity in advance of their flight, our Customer Service Team can arrange an exemption of our normal baggage T&C’s and potentially waive additional baggage charges (including excess baggage charges),
"Our ground teams in the airport would not be in a position to waive such charges if only advised by the passenger at the airport I’m afraid."
Karina is still planning to fly from Cork to Gdansk tonight after paying for an extra bag so all the clothes can be donated.
“It’s so important with what’s going on over there,” added Peter.
The Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Saturday that more than 115,000 refugees have crossed into Poland since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Ukrainian people have been waiting for up to 60 hours in freezing weather to cross at border points into Poland with queues of around 250,000 people waiting to enter the country.
In Poland, refugees can stay in reception centres where they can receive food and medical care.
Unicef estimates that so far, around 660,000 Ukrainian people have fled the country including over 330,000 women and children.
The EU believes that the number of refugees leaving Ukraine could climb to seven million, and that 18 million Ukrainians will be affected by the war.