Watchdog demands ‘action, not words’ as Ryanair cancels more Irish flights
RYANAIR has been told “action, not words” is needed to redress passengers affected by its mass flight cancellations.
The warning came as the airline confirmed that 22 flights to and from Dublin will be cancelled between November 1 and March 24. The news comes just a day after the budget airline announced it is grounding an extra 18,000 flights from its winter schedule, a move that will affect an estimated 400,000 travellers.
Ryanair announced yesterday that three return flights between Dublin and Birmingham (FR 664 and FR 665), Paris Beauvais (FR 22 and FR 23) and Barcelona (FR 3977 and FR 3976) on Mondays between November and March will be cancelled.
A Thursday return flight between Dublin and Bucharest (FR 7346 and FR 7347) will be dropped, as will be some Friday journeys between our main airport and Birmingham (FR 664 and FR 665), Paris Beauvais (FR 22 and FR 23), Barcelona (FR 6875 and FR 6874), Madrid (FR 7456 and FR 7157) and Warsaw Modlin (FR 4543 and FR 4544). Sunday return services between Dublin and Birmingham (FR664andFR665)and Krakow (FR 1901 and FR 1902) have also been cut. The airline has apologised for the cancellations, saying it “deeply regrets” if anyone now doubts its reliability.
Meanwhile, the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) hit out at Ryanair, claiming it had provided “misleading information” by only offering customers affected by cancellations alternative Ryanair flights, instead of flights with other carriers.
CAA chief executive Andrew Haines told Sky News yesterday that the CAA was “furious” with Ryanair and wanted to see “action, not words”.
Ryanair said it would meet with the British authorities and comply with regulators’ directions.
“We will be meeting with the CAA and will comply fully with whatever requirements they ask us to,” Ryanair said in a statement yesterday.
Responsibility for supervision of how airlines look after passengers affected by flight cancellations is based on the location airport the flight departs from.
Irish flights come under the authority of Ireland’s Commission for Aviation Regulation. It has been posting information on passengers’ rights on its own website since the day after the crisis began on September 20.