Ryanair’s cancellation of thousands of flights across Europe due to a backlog of staff leave has raised alarm bells in Italy over its attempt to buy the troubled flag carrier Alitalia. The airline, which has experienced huge growth in Italy and controls 24.3% of the market, compared with Alitalia’s 17%, made a non-binding offer for its lossmaking rival in July. But the scrapping of 2,000 flights across Europe, 702 of these to and from Italy, between now and the end of October, has raised questions as to whether Ryanair would be capable of reviving Alitalia. With the sale of the airline likely to become a political sticking point as Italy prepares for a general election before May 2018, the transport minister, Graziano Delrio, said the impact of the cancellations was “very serious”. “It’s caused a huge amount of inconvenience for Italians and we insist on the absolute respect for passengers’ rights,” he said. “We will monitor the situation, but we can’t make allowances for such a huge amount of disruption.” Last year, Delrio praised Ryanair after it announced plans to invest €E883m in Italy, creating 2,250 jobs and opening 44 new routes. Fabrizio Premuti, the president of the Italian consumers’ association, Konsumer, told the Guardian: “Ryanair is a very important contributor to the Italian economy, but they have made a big mistake. The shock that the airline has created has left people thinking that we will try to cure a sick flagship company with a medicine that will make it even worse.”<br/>