RYANAIR NOW CANCELLING UP TO 80 FLIGHTS A DAY
RYANAIR are cancelling up to 80 flights every day due to a huge backlog in staff holidays – despite originally saying it would be axing 40-50 each day.
The budget airline could face a bill of over €100million from passengers of cancelled flights who are owed compensation due to the short notice.
And Ryanair is still refusing to confirm whether it is selling flights that could later be cancelled, in a disastrous week for the airline’s image and profits.
On Friday, the budget carrier made the shock announcement that it was cancelling ‘between 40 and 50 flights daily’ – up to 2,100 in total – all across Europe until the end of October as it had ‘messed up in the planning of pilot holidays’.
However, during the first six days of this plan the company cut an average of 68 flights a day. In addition to the mass cancellations, the budget carrier has refused to give passengers a full list of all flights cancelled or yet to be cancelled up to November 1 and are informing customers by email or text just days before they are due to travel.
Under new rules announced by the Irish Aviation Authority last year, the backlog in holiday entitlements for pilots and crew have to be taken up before December 1, creating the chaotic situation that could affect 250,000 passengers.
Should passengers whose flights are cancelled seek statutory compensation they could be entitled to either €250 or €400 under EU law, depending on the distance of the flight, raising a potential bill of between €62.5million and €100million.
Passengers are also entitled to a refund or an alternative flight in addition to money on lost hotels or event tickets, on top of the compensation figure.
Yesterday, the Commission for Aviation Regulation said that, in this case, two weeks’ notice should be given by Ryanair to avoid compensation, which, CAR explains, is a separate matter from refunds or alternative routes that must be offered by the company.
The commission adds that two weeks’ notice is not being given by Ryanair and that the company could face ‘hefty’ claims. Ryanair said they would ‘comply fully with all regulations in this area’.
Passengers this morning are again facing travel chaos. Twelve of today’s 56 cancelled flights across the Ryanair network are either to or from Dublin.
The company, headed by Michael O’Leary, said that cancellation notices for flights up to Wednesday have been sent to affected customers.
Despite Ryanair saying that between 40 and 50 flights a day would be cancelled, on Friday, the first day of the measures, 81 flights were cancelled with ten to or from Dublin Airport affected. On Saturday 80 were cancelled with 12 Dublin cancellations. Yesterday, eight flights from the capital were cancelled of the 82 across Europe while today 56 flights were cancelled with 12 going to or from Dublin.
The company has confirmed that 55 of tomorrow’s flights will be cancelled with a further 53 pulled on Wednesday. That gives a total of 408 cancellations. In total, 55 Irish flights will be affected over the six days.
When asked by the Irish Daily Mail about the high figures, a spokesperson said a ‘slightly higher number’ would initially be in effect ‘as we begin to implement these cancellations’.
However, the company refused to deny it was still selling flights that would later be cancelled.
‘Cancellation notices for flights cancelled up to and including Wednesday (September 20) have been sent to affected customers and posted on the Ryanair.com website. We will continue to send regular updates and post flight information on our website with the next set of cancellations to be issued on Monday,’ the spokesperson said.
Fianna Fáil’s transport spokesperson, Robert Troy, criticised the company’s behaviour.
He said: ‘It’s simply unfair that they are cancelling even more flights with such short notice leaving many passengers stranded overseas. I don’t believe that Ryanair should continue to sell tickets on flights that they may end up cancelling.
‘Ryanair should publish a list of flights at risk of cancellation and give passengers ample opportunities to make arrangements.’
‘It’s simply unfair’
IT’S almost a cliché to commend Ryanair for changing the face of air travel. To shudder at the bad old days when a short hop from Dublin to London cost a month’s wages, thanks to Aer Lingus’s hegemony on the route across the Irish Sea.
Michael O’Leary’s budget airline opened up Europe to ordinary people: it allowed families of limited means have foreign holidays, often more than once a year and let many of us take city breaks at the drop of a hat, in the casual and spontaneous style that previously would be unimaginable for anybody other than the idle rich.
Of course passengers paid a price for no-frills travel in other ways. There were absolutely no creature comforts to be had in the aircraft’s garish interiors. And if a flight went smoothly, without an interminable queue at the departure gates, then the true meaning of the term ‘cattle class’ might become apparent on arrival at some godforsaken airstrip in the middle of nowhere.
But despite controversies about disabled people being abandoned at airports because of the lack of special assistance or of heinous penalties for forgotten boarding cards, the cheap-as-chips airline thrived.
Money, it seemed, was the bottom line for its customers; the public had short memories.
If they saved a few bob, passengers would overlook being squashed into seats like sardines or being humiliated at the departure gate if their carry-on suitcase weighed over the limit.
Over recent years, Ryanair has adopted a more touchy-feely approach to customer service in response to enhanced competition by other, let’s say, friendlier budget airlines.
But perhaps it’s the memory of bygone times – when customers could be pushed around like cattle and still come back for more – that makes Michael O’Leary confident that his unprecedented decision to cancel thousands of flights over the next six weeks will not do his business irreparable damage.
Yesterday, the airline dramatically cancelled more than 80 flights, including four from Dublin to Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Nantes and Santander, creating bedlam for thousands of flyers.
Affected passengers received emails warning them of the situation, and offering them alternative flights, in some cases days after their scheduled travel dates.
Longer-term booked passengers – those set to fly after September 20 – are still in the dark about what’s in store.
While being stranded in a busy airport like Stansted, from which there are multiple Ryanair flights to Dublin a day could be an inconvenience for the seasoned traveller, it’s a far more anxious prospect for the elderly who know that the new school year has started, make up a considerable portion of Ryanair’s traffic.
A flight cancelled to or from Crete or the Canary Islands, or any place served by the airline only once or twice a week would likewise be calamitous for budget travellers without the means to shell out for a longer hotel stay.
As a result of the cancellations, it’s predicted that at least a quarter of a million passengers and possibly as many as 378,000 people may be unexpectedly grounded in the weeks to come.
Naturally the confusion has sent passengers into a tailspin of disappointment and frustration, as well as worry about their right to compensation.
Rationale
Had Michael O’Leary set out to purposely undermine his brand and shatter confidence in his airline, he could have not gone about it in a better way.
For whatever about the airline’s shabby customer service, its sneaky charges, the arrogance of its mouthy chief executive, its reputation for safety and for delivering its passengers to their destination on time was up to this, second to none.
For all its faults, Ryanair always did exactly what it said on the tin – but now that hard-won reputation has unravelled at one seemingly rash stroke of a pen.
The scale of the damage is so unquantifiable that it has left industry insiders scratching their heads about the underlying rationale.
The official reason for the dramatic cancellations is to allow the airline recover its punctuality record which had dipped to below 80%.
A spokesperson also said that the grounded flights were necessary because it had ‘messed up’ the planning of pilot holidays so much so that it had to help staff catch up on their holiday entitlement.
On RTÉ radio yesterday, Colm Barrington – a former chairman of Aer Lingus, and an old sparring partner of Michael O’Leary’s – cast doubt on his credibility.
There is also speculation about a manpower shortage, particularly concerning pilots, with Norwegian airlines recently boasting that 140 Ryanair pilots had joined it so far this year.
Ryanair, however, has flatly denied that there has been an exodus of staff and that that might lie behind the sudden decision to ground so many flights.
The pilot holiday issue is partly the result of an agreement which Ryanair somewhat reluctantly reached with the Irish Aviation Authority and the European Air Safety Agency, obliging it to fall in line with long-established EU safety standards.
The new regime has allegedly limited Ryanair’s scope to play around with flying hours and rosters. The terms also state that during the transition, pilots must receive an additional month’s leave.
According to weekend reports, it appears that the company’s forecast of pilot requirements didn’t allow enough leeway for this or indeed for the impact of the French air-traffic control strikes, poor weather and other operational issues which meant that many pilots reached their flight time limitations sooner than predicted.
The debacle is part of a bad run of luck for the budget airline. Last week, the European Court of Justice ruled on whether a number of former staff could take legal action against Ryanair in Belgium, where they worked or only in Ireland as their contract of employment stated.
Without ruling definitively, the court dismissed the Ryanair contracts as unenforceable and found that the fact that the former staff had been permanently based in Charleroi was a significant factor supporting their claim to protection under Belgian law.
The effect on the markets of the decision was seen in the 3% dip in the share price, with analysts suggesting that it could call the low-cost carrier’s employment model into question, leading to potentially higher labour costs.
The prospect of soaring costs staff wise is not exactly the backdrop Michael O’Leary wishes for as he seeks to fight the fires of condemnation created by widespread flight cancellations.
Presumably he has a wily plan to restore confidence in his airline.
He may gamble on another ‘megamillion’ seat sale calming the storm. Or on winning favour with the reversal of recent unpopular decisions to cut cabin baggage limits and impose charges for allocated seating.
But with public anger and disenchantment set to rumble on until the end of October, the question is whether such sweeteners would be enough to cause Ryanair customers to revert to form and forgive and forget, once again.