Airline Cancels Flights For Another 400,000 Passengers

The U.K. CAA has launched enforcement action against Ryanair for persistently misleading passengers with inaccurate information regarding their rights in respect of its recent cancellations.

Earlier this month, following Ryanair's decision to cancel many thousands of flights, the UK CAA wrote to the Irish airline to clarify their legal obligations, and we sought assurances around how and when they would reroute passengers onto alternative flights.

The CAA told the airline to make a corrective public statement, to ensure customers were not misled and had accurate comprehensive information relating to their rights and entitlements.

In announcing thousands more cancellations Wednesday to its scheduled program, the airline has again failed to provide customers with the necessary and accurate information relating to their passenger rights, particularly around rerouting and care and assistance entitlements, which includes expenses, the CAA said.

The authority has told Ryanair that we are expediting enforcement action against them.

"There are clear laws in place, which are intended to assist passengers in the event of a cancellation, helping minimize both the frustration and inconvenience caused by circumstances completely out of their control," said CAA Chief Executive Andrew Haines.

"We have made this crystal clear to Ryanair, who are well aware of their legal obligations, which includes how and when they should reroute passengers, along with the level of information it provides its passengers.  The information Ryanair published today again fails to makes this clear.

"In expediting our enforcement action we are seeking to ensure that Ryanair's customers will receive the correct and necessary information, to make an informed choice about an alternative flight.”

The number of passengers affected by the latest round of cancellations is about 400,000, according to multiple media sources.

Ryanair said in a statement posted on its website that it will slow its growth this winter (Nov 17 to Mar 18), by flying 25 less aircraft (of its 400 fleet) from November, and 10 fewer aircraft (of 445) from April 2018. By reducing its flying schedule in this controlled manner Ryanair will;

• eliminate all risk of further flight cancellations, because slower growth creates lots of spare aircraft and crews across Ryanair’s 86 bases this winter.
• roster all of the extra pilot leave necessary in Oct, Nov and Dec to meet the IAA’s requirement to complete a 9 month annual leave transition period (April to Dec ‘17) so that Ryanair starts a new calendar leave year from 1st Jan 2018 with no backlog.
• roster almost 40% of the annual pilot leave requirement for 2018 in Q1 2018, which removes risk of roster problems recurring next year.
• roll out a series of low fare seat sales for winter 2017 confident that there will be no further roster related cancellations.

“We sincerely apologize to those customers who have been affected by last week’s flight cancellations, or these sensible schedule changes announced today. While over 99% of our 129 million customers will not have been affected by any cancellations or disruptions, we deeply regret any doubt we caused existing customers last week about Ryanair’s reliability, or the risk of further cancellations," said Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary in a statement posted on the carrier's website.

"From today, there will be no more rostering related flight cancellations this winter or in summer 2018. Slower growth this winter, will create lots of spare aircraft and crews which will allow us to manage the exceptional volumes of annual leave we committed to delivering in the 9 months to Dec 2017. We will start a new 12 month leave period on the 1st of Jan 2018 in full compliance with EU regulations and the IAA’s requirements.

"All of the passengers who have been affected by these disruptions have now been offered re-accommodation or full refunds and their applicable EU261 entitlements. In addition today, they are receiving a travel voucher (€40 one way/€80 return) which they may use to book any Ryanair flight of their choice during October for travel between October and March 2018. We look forward to welcoming them all on board.”

(Image from file)

FMI: www.caa.co.uk, www.ryanair.com