NOW RYANAIR CANCELS XMAS
++ 18,000 winter flights axed ++ 400,000 MORE passengers affected ++ Festive season travel plans thrown into chaos
RYANAIR was accused of cancelling Christmas last night after wrecking the plans of 400,000 more passengers.
Two weeks after scrapping 2,000 autumn flights, the budget airline said a further 18,000 will be grounded this winter.
Thirty-four routes will be suspended in a desperate attempt to solve a staffing crisis.
Ryanair has admitted ‘messing up’ its holiday rosters for pilots, leaving too few on standby to keep schedules on track. Although the second wave of cancellations is bigger than the first, similar numbers of passengers will be hit because the flights are not yet booked out.
All services between London and Scotland will be scrapped over the festive period, along with many linking European cities.
Passengers are not entitled to compensation because they have had at least 14 days notice.
‘This situation is a complete and utter shambles that now extends to up to nearly three quarters of a million people,’ said Alex Neill, of the consumer group Which?
‘Ryanair has effectively cancelled Christmas for some of its passengers.’ She said the offer
of a £40 voucher would be cold comfort for passengers who could not book the flight they required.
The latest fiasco heaps further pressure on Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary. The airline has been accused of failing to tell passengers how to claim compensation – and of refusing to book them on alternative airlines.
And last night the Civil Aviation Authority launched enforcement action against Ryanair ‘for persistently misleading’ customers. Some said they would never fly with the carrier again. Others fear being left out of pocket, having already booked accommodation or car hire.
Steve Double, a Tory member of the Commons transport committee, said: ‘These latest cancellations are clearly very concerning. The future of O’Leary is a matter for shareholders but he needs to provide some real answers about how this has been allowed to happen.’ Ryanair said
‘It is another kick in the teeth’
reducing its flying schedule in a ‘controlled manner’ would eliminate all risk of further cancellations, providing spare aircraft and crews over the winter.
It had hoped to avoid the extra cancellations after offering pilots entitled to holiday in the coming months up to £12,000 to come into work for a week. But this was rejected by a group of pilots who demanded better working conditions instead. The airline yesterday insisted hundreds of pilots had taken up the offer.
The cancellations will ground all flights linking London to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast, with 34 routes suspended between November 17 and March 18.
Ryanair said it would take 25 of its 400 planes across Europe out of action during the five-month period. The Civil Aviation Authority is particularly concerned that Ryanair has failed to spell out the right to rebook on a flight with another airline. The airline has insisted it is not obliged to do so.
Andrew Haines, the regulator’s chief executive, said: ‘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.’
The CAA can take court action to force airlines to make changes. A Ryanair spokesman said: ‘We are in correspondence with the CAA and have addressed their concerns.’
The company said many of the 18,000 flights cancelled yesterday were empty and the decision would affect just one service a day at each of its 200 airports.
But the move was significant enough for 400,000 passengers to be sent an email telling them their flights had been axed.
As with the first wave of cancellations, which affected around 315,000 people, there is a choice between rebooking and a refund. Ryanair has offered both groups of passengers vouchers of £40 for single fares and £80 for returns.
Guy Anker, managing editor of Moneysavingexpert, said: ‘This is another kick in the teeth for already hard hit and worried Ryanair passengers. It will pile further pressure on its top brass, including Michael O’ Leary. While Ryanair had a bad reputation for hit-
ting you with unexpected fees – at least it got you to your destination.
‘Now people are going to wonder whether it can even do that.’
Mr O’Leary said: ‘We sincerely apologise to those customers who have been affected by last week’s flight cancellations, or these sensible schedule changes announced today. While over 99 per cent of our 129million 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.’
Ryanair insisted there was no shortage of pilots. But one told the Mail: ‘This is rubbish. It is not just normal pilots who are leaving. We are losing training captains – the guys needed to train replacement cadets and captains. They are leaving in droves. All the experience is being washed out’