GROUNDED & POUNDED
Ryanair heap fresh misery on fliers as Scots winter holiday flights axed Airline label led‘ complete and utter shambles’as 400,000 travellers hit
RYANAIR heaped more misery on suffering customers yesterday by scrapping winter holiday flights from Scotland. The crisis-hit budget airline are grounding 25 of their 400 aircraft from November
until March next year. A total of 18,000 flights will be hit and 400,000 customers across the UK affected.
Popular routes out of Scotland to Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, Hamburg, Germany, and Szczecin, Poland, have been hit.
And all Glasgow and Edinburgh flights to London Stansted will be suspended.
The latest moves come on top of recent cancellations which have caused havoc for travellers as the airline grapple with problems caused by bungles over pilots’ leave.
Ryanair insisted last night there would now be no further “rosterrelated cancellations”.
But that was little consolation to passengers who now face having to make last-minute new arrangements.
And ABTA, the UK trade body for tour operators and travel agents, said travellers had little comeback.
They will not be due compensation as the flights have been cancelled more than 14 days before they were due to travel.
An ABTA spokesman said as well as Scots heading abroad, Ryanair’s decision could also hit expats who wanted to come home for the festive season.
He said: “Obviously a lot of Scots won’t have their flights home for Christmas any more.
“People going to Gran Canaria, the chances are they’re not booked on a package holiday and will have organised accommodation separately so they will need to sort that out quite quickly.
“If they’ve paid for accommodation up front they could be hit by cancellation charges. They could lose out financially because some insurance covers it but some doesn’t.”
Those whose flights are being cancelled will receive a €40 (€80 return) travel voucher.
It will allow them to book – during October – a flight on any alternative Ryanair service between October and March 2018.
Alex Neill, of Which? home and product
services, said: “This situation is a complete and utter shambles that now extends to up to nearly three quarters of a million people.
“The news means that for some of their passengers, Ryanair have effectively cancelled Christmas.
“On top of leaving the travel plans of many in tatters, offering a €40 voucher will be cold comfort for passengers who can’t book the flight they need.”
Passengers reacted with fury last night and the Scottish Government urged Ryanair bosses to resolve their issues “as soon as possible”.
Regular customer James P Leveque said in a tweet: “Ryanair has cancelled 5 return flights of mine from Stansted to Edinburgh. It’s graciously given me the option of rescheduling – in April.”
Sophie Lockley said she was due to fly to Glasgow from Stansted at the end of next month.
Sophie, who is based in the south of England, said: “It’s a huge inconvenience as my best friend lives in Scotland. We were meeting in London then flying to Glasgow to spend time with her family.
“She has a brain tumour and doesn’t do well with stress, so this is the last thing she needs.”
Tricia Brownlie also took to Twitter to vent her fury at the cancellations. She wrote: “Absolutely shocking! Cancelled our flights from Glasgow to Stansted on New Year’s Eve.
“Told us we could choose alternative flights but they don’t have any because they’ve cancelled all of them.”
Another customer wrote: “November flight to Edinburgh cancelled with @Ryanair absolute joke. How long does it take to sort this circus out?”
Last night, the Civil Aviation Authority said they were launching “enforcement action” against Ryanair.
They said the airline had failed, including in their announcement yesterday, to give customers accurate information about their rights to refunds, expenses and rerouting when a flight has been cancelled.
The regulators have asked for a meeting with the airline and could take legal action for breaching consumer protection laws “if necessary”.
The Dublin-based airline have blamed their problems on a backlog of pilot holidays.
They say suspending the 34 routes affected means they will be able to roster all the necessary leave in October, November and December.
Flight cancellations have cost the airline €25 million but they say less than one per cent of their 50million customers this winter have been affected.
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said in a statement: “We sincerely apologise to those customers who have been affected by last week’s cancellations, or these sensible schedule changes announced today.
“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 nine months to December 2017.”