Ryanair have published a full list of flights which have been cancelled over the next six weeks.
The airline has said that it was forced to cancel “only 2% of flights” and that “over 98% of passengers will be unaffected”.
The airports where one line of flying will be removed for the next 6 weeks have been selected because of the high frequency of flights Ryanair operates to/from these airports where customers can be offered the most accommodating options. They are:
Barcelona | 1 of 12 lines of flights |
Brussels Charl | 1 of 13 lines of flights |
Dublin | 1 of 23 lines of flights |
Lisbon | 1 of 4 lines of flights |
London Stan | 2 of 41 lines of flights |
Madrid | 1 of 13 lines of flight |
Milan Bergamo | 1 of 14 lines of flights |
Porto | 1 of 8 lines of flights |
Rome Fiumi | 1 of 3 lines of flights |
Company boss, Michael O’Leary admitted that the company “messed up” over pilot holidays which has caused a backlog of annual leave resulting in the Ryanair having to cancel 40-50 flghts per day for the next six weeks.
The company is expecting a compensation bill of around € 20 million. (What compensation could up to 285.000 Ryanair passengers be entitled to?)
In a statement to the press on Monday, O’Leary said: “Clearly there’s a large reputational impact for which again I apologise. We will try to do better in future. In terms of lost profitability we think it will cost us something of the order of up to about five million euros (£4.4 million) over the next six weeks and in terms of the EU261 compensation we think that will be something up to a maximum of 20 million euros but much depends on how many of the alternative flights our customers take up.”
O’Leary also commented:
“While over 98% of our customers will not be affected by these cancellations over the next 6 weeks, we apologise unreservedly to those customers whose travel will be disrupted, and assure them that we have done our utmost to try to ensure that we can re-accommodate most of them on alternative flights on the same or next day.
Ryanair is not short of pilots – we were able to fully crew our peak summer schedule in June, July and August – but we have messed up the allocation of annual leave to pilots in Sept and Oct because we are trying to allocate a full year’s leave into a 9 month period from April to December. This issue will not recur in 2018 as Ryanair goes back onto a 12 month calendar leave year from 1st Jan to 31st December 2018.
This is a mess of our own making. I apologise sincerely to all our customers for any worry or concern this has caused them over the past weekend. We have only taken this decision to cancel this small proportion of our 2,500 daily flights so that we can provide extra standby cover and protect the punctuality of the 98% of flights that will be unaffected by these cancellations.”
On its website, the airline has said that it will comply with EU Regulation 261/2004 and has offered its passengers the options of applying for a refund or changing their flights.
Apply for a refund
If you wish to cancel your reservation and claim a full refund of the unused flight(s) click on the link below and enter your booking details.
Click Here to Apply for Ryanair Refund
Refunds will be processed within 7 working days back to the form of payment used for the original booking.
Change your Cancelled Flight (for free)
The easiest way to change your cancelled flight for free (subject to seat availability) is by retrieving your booking online:
Click Here To Change Ryanair Flight
Further rerouting options, departing / arriving from another airport served by Ryanair or changing an unaffected return flight, is possible by contacting a Ryanair advisors using the Free Online Chat or calling one of the customer service Contacts Numbers.
Ryanair have stated: “We understand that flight cancellations may cause distress and we will accommodate your option of choice wherever possible, while complying with EU Regulation 261/2004.”