Cancelled flights land Ryanair with E25m bill

Ryanair faces a bill of up to €25m from the abrupt decision to cancel up to 2,100 flights over the next six weeks, a move the airline was forced to make to abide by safety rules for pilot flying time. Michael O’Leary, the Ryanair CE, apologised Monday after passengers around Europe vented their fury on social media over the decision to cancel 50 flights a day starting on Saturday and running through October. “We apologise unreservedly to those customers whose travel will be disrupted,” said O’Leary, scrambling to limit the reputational damage the airline has faced since announcing the cancellations on Friday. “This is a mess of our own making. I apologise sincerely to all our customers for any worry or concern this has caused.” Some passengers were not convinced. Stephen Smith, who only discovered his flight from Alicante to Manchester on Saturday morning had been cancelled when his wife’s boarding pass was rejected by security, said there had been little effort to help stranded passengers. It remained unclear why the carrier had been unable to give advance notice of the cancellations at the weekend. It only published a list of flights affected Monday. “We were able to fully crew our peak summer schedule in June, July and August, but we have messed up the allocation of annual leave to pilots in September and October,” he said. “This issue will not recur in 2018.” The EC weighed in Monday, reminding Ryanair it had to comply with EU rules on passenger rights, including possible reimbursement and compensation. “A passenger whose flights are cancelled has a comprehensive set of rights including the right to reimbursement,” said a commission spokesperson. “We expect Ryanair to comply by these rules.”<br/>