After legal threats, humiliated O’Leary caves in over re-routing and refunds

power to take airlines to court, gave the budget airline a 5pm deadline to contact customers.

With just 45 minutes to go, Ryanair emailed passengers as official spokesman Kenny Jacobs said: “We apologise again sincerely for the disruption and inconvenience our rostering failure has caused some of our customers.”

But Alex Neill, Which? managing director of home products and services, warned: “Ryanair’s response may get close to complying with the regulations but it still smacks of a lingering reluctance to do the right thing by customers.

“Their convoluted four-step rerouting policy means passengers face a potential minefield trying to get to their destination when their flight is cancelled.

“The CAA now need to watch Ryanair like a hawk. They must take firm action if the airline are found to be failing the hundreds of thousands of passengers who have been caught up in this mess.”

CAA chief executive Andrew Haines added: “Our job is to protect passengers’ rights and ensure that all airlines operating in the UK are fully compliant with important consumer laws.

“Where we find that an airline are systematically flouting these rules, we will not hesitate to take action to minimise the harm and detriment caused to passengers, as we have done with Ryanair in recent days.”

The announcement came just hours after it was revealed that the airline’s current pilots are pulling together to form a union.

Last night, they piled pressure on shareholders to force boss Michael O’Leary to go and said they were discussing strike