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Ryanair to publish full list of cancellations after screwing up staff holidays

Ryanair customers whose flights are being cancelled, will receive an email by this evening informing them, chief executive Michael O'Leary has said.

The budget airline plans to cancel 40-50 flights every day for the next six weeks, after it admitted it had "messed up" the planning of pilot holidays.

The details of all the cancelled flights will be on the Ryanair website over the next 24 hours, the firm said.

Mr O'Leary said most people would still be able to fly on the same day. If not, they would be moved to flights the day before or the day after and the airline would meet its obligations over compensation.

The airline said it was cancelling flights at airports where it runs the busiest schedules, so it would be easier to accommodate passengers on alternative flights.

That will include flights operating out of the following airports: Barcelona, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, London Stansted, Madrid, Milan Bergamo, Porto and Rome Fiumi.

Mr O'Leary said around 400,000 passengers would be directly affected, but he said a decision had been made to disrupt the plans of 2% of travellers in order to offer a better service to the remaining customers.

Changes to the way the airline organises its holiday year have left Ryanair with a backlog of staff leave, meaning there is a shortage of pilots on standby over the next six weeks.

That meant any minor disruptions to flights were causing knock-on delays, because the airline did not have the flexibility it needed from back-up crews, said Mr O'Leary.

After 1 November, when the lighter winter schedule begins, there will not be any need for cancellations, he said.

He said they were also asking to buy back leave from pilots and alter the holiday schedule.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41311603

Pretty insane the amount of chaos this administrative error has caused, certainly both to passengers but also the company. Financially this will hurt them a lot. Anyone here on TSR affected by this at all?

Reply 1

tresmellon

Not affected thank god, I had my flight from Dublin a few days ago luckily.

Reply 2

username1799249

Original post by MrDystopia

Pretty insane the amount of chaos this administrative error has caused, certainly both to passengers but also the company. Financially this will hurt them a lot. Anyone here on TSR affected by this at all?

Agreed. I heard the number £18 million in compensation being talked about. But that said, I am yet to work for a business that took people's holiday allowance serious. One large multi-national company I worked for left it to our immediate line managers to keep track of who had had what. I think I had 30 days holiday that year.

Reply 3

username1738683

If there is an upside to the public anywhere, it has to be that they'll end up having to pay people to get on board. I wouldn't book a free flight with them, they have to rely on customers who know nothing about them. This is how free-markets work, by voting with their feet customers drive dross like this out of existence and therefore improve overall standards.

Reply 4

anon_mous

I've been affected by it. Tried to contact them (which was a nightmare in itself) and was told by two very rude customer assistants that the cancellations were not Ryanair's fault and I am not entitled to compensation or a different flight. I think they think we are idiots. Needless to say I'll be writing a letter but no doubt it will be a big fight for compensation and not an easy claim.