Ryanair admits flights ‘mess’ will cost millions

Ryanair faces a compensation bill of up to £17.7 million for the flight cancellations “mess” which has left many passengers stranded, the airline’s boss Michael O’leary said.

The Dublin-based carrier is shelving up to 50 flights daily over the next six weeks due to a pilot shortage.

Mr O’leary, the airline’s chief executive, told a press conference: “Clearly there’s a large reputational impact for which again I apologise. We will try to do better in future.

“In terms of lost profitability we think it will cost us something of the order of up to about €5m (£4.4m) over the next six weeks and in terms of the EU261 compensation we think that will be something up to a maximum of €20m but much depends on how many of the alternative flights our customers take up.”

Mr O’leary said customers whose flights have been cancelled were due to receive an e-mail by yesterday evening. This would inform them what flights they can transfer to, which will be “hopefully on the same or at worse the next day”.

Under EU law, passengers given less than 14 days notice of a flight cancellation are entitled to claim compensation worth up to €250 depending on the timing of alternative flights and if the issue was not beyond the responsibility of the airline, such as extreme weather.

Mr O’leary added: “This is our mess-up.

“When we make a mess in Ryanair we come out with our hands up.”