Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
THE SHAMING OF RYANAIR
‘Mess-up’ on pilot holidays led to 2,000 flights cancelled As 400,000 passengers lose out, airline faces £22million bill Firm ‘knew about problem since last year’but did nothing
RYANAIR’S reputation has nosedived after it admitted a “mess up” on pilot holidays led to 2,000 cancelled flights. It faces a £22million bill for the shambles after thousands of vacations were ruined. Chief exec Michael O’leary said: “This is clearly a mess up.”
RYANAIR’S value has fallen nearly £320million as boss Michael O’leary was forced to apologise for the cancellations fiasco set to hit nearly 400,000 passengers.
The airline’s plummeting stock market value came as it was claimed the budget carrier knew as much as a year ago about the looming pilot shortage that forced it to ground up to 50 flights a day for the next six weeks.
Up to 2,000 flights are to be axed, including to and from London Stansted, Manchester and Birmingham.
Chief executive Mr O’leary said: “This is clearly a mess up. I take responsibility. Have I damaged Ryanair’s reputation with these cancellations? Yes.
“But I’d rather damage the reputation by cancelling 50 flights a day than significantly delaying 40% of our flights which would amount to 800 flights a day.”
Asked if it was the biggest disaster of his career, he said: “I have had a litany of cock-ups over the last 12 years.”
But he refused to step down, insisting: “I need to stay here and fix this.”
Axed flights were still on sale online last night, though the airline said they were being taken down. A full list of affected flights would be published today, Mr O’leary vowed.
Ryanair said air traffic control delays and strikes, bad weather and a backlog of annual leave to be taken by pilots and cabin crew had led to punctuality falling to below 80% over the past two weeks.
But sources say the problems are also linked to difficulties hiring and retaining flight crew. One former Ryanair employee said 10% of Ryanair’s captains, and 16% of first officers, left every year. The insider said: “When Ryanair says it’s about punctuality, that’s a red herring.”
The problem is down to a realignment of the leave window and flight hour restrictions, the source said. And added: “Ryanair is massively short staffed over summer so pilots used up their flying time and now need to take the leave. They legally can’t do more hours.”
Flights started to be cancelled last week, leaving many out of pocket due to non-refundable accommodation or expensive alternative flights.
The Roffe family told how they lost their holiday to Malaga last week after Ryanair cancelled their flight from Leeds Bradford airport 45 minutes before boarding.
Mum Kellie, 35, and dad Simon, 30, had paid £495 for flights and £1,500 for a hotel with children Casey, 15, Ella, 12, Ruan, nine and Amelia-rose, five.
They were offered a replacement flight out to Spain – but not till the day before they were due to return home to Lincoln. Under EU law, Ryanair must offer a choice of reimbursement or a new flight on the next available service or an agreed date. Passengers are also entitled to up to 400 euro (£354) compensation. Mr O’leary said: “If they’re not satisfied with the alternative flights offered they can have a full refund.
“We will not be trying to claim exceptional circumstances.”
Alex Neill of Which? said Ryanair should pay compensation automatically to save families the stress of claiming.