19/09/2017

Ryanair Confirms Six Weeks Of Flight Cancellations

Ryanair has published a full list of flight cancellations to run between Thursday 21 September and Tuesday 31 October.

Up to 50 flights a day are to be cancelled across the airlines services for a period of six weeks. The cancellations have been allocated, where possible, to Ryanair's bigger base airports, and routes with multiple daily frequencies so that Ryanair can offer these disrupted customers the maximum number of alternate flights and routes in order to minimise inconvenience to them.

Passengers due to flight during this period will have been contacted by email by Ryanair with offers of alternative flights or full refunds, and details of their EU261 compensation entitlement.

Ryanair said that it "sincerely regrets and apologises for these cancellations" but highlights that they will affect less than 2% of all customers.

Ryanair's Michael O'Leary said: "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."

The full list of cancelled flights is available here.

(MH)

Related Irish News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

05 July 2016
French ATC Strike Forces Ryanair And Aer Lingus Flight Cancellations
A French air traffic control (ATC) strike has forced Ryanair and Aer Lingus to cancel a number of flights to and from France and Spain today, 05 July. Ryanair cancelled 102 flights, while Aer Lingus had to cancel eight flights after the French ATC began their 13th strike in 14 weeks.
01 March 2010
Ryanair Passenger Eats €10,000 Scratch Card
Ryanair have revealed that a male passenger aboard a flight ate his winning scratch card worth €10,000 after being told he would have to wait until landing before claiming his prize.
11 March 2009
Ryanair Face Criticism Over New Charges
Budget airline Ryanair is facing tough criticism over its imposition of a €5 charge for check-ins. The airline announced on Wednesday it will be introducing new check in procedures whereby customers will have to carry out the check in procedures themselves online, and will be charged €5 for their trouble.
07 December 2007
Arrests On Ryanair Flight
Two men have been arrested on a Ryanair flight at Dublin Airport. It is understood that the men were onboard a flight to Charleroi in Brussels, which was due to depart at 8.30am this morning. According to reports, both men refused to sit down as the plane was taxiing down the runway and then one of the men urinated at the back of the plane.
14 November 2012
Ryanair Claim Government Ignored Cost Saving Offer
Ryanair have claimed the government ignored an offer to save the State millions of euro on flights during Ireland’s presidency of the European Union next year, a claim the government have denied.