All day on Friday reports were appearing on Twitter and questions were coming in from readers about cancelled Ryanair flights. There were flight cancellations all across Europe from Paris BVA, Edinburgh, Milan Malpensa, Bristol, Barcelona, Alicante, Malaga, Newcastle and dozens more.
Disbelief and outrage greeted the news from Ryanair that it had cancelled the flights deliberately to improve punctuality and allocate leave to staff. It seems it is changing how leave is allocated from April to March to the calendar year January to December.
The fact that punctuality has fallen to below 80 per cent in the first two weeks of September has caused consternation. Always proud of its punctuality, it has been hit by air traffic control strikes, capacity delays, weather disruption and increased holiday allocations to pilots and cabin crew.
Q. What can you do if your flight is cancelled?
A. You can rebook to another day on the website and hopefully that flight will not be cancelled.
Q. Can I get a refund?
A. Yes, you can get a refund in full for your flight. If your flight is delayed more than three hours you can claim a full refund for the delayed flight by going to https://refundclaims.ryanair.com/ and entering your booking details. Refunds will be processed, within seven working days, back to the form of payment used for the original booking.
Q. I am already travelling and my return flight has been cancelled. What can I do?
A. You can rebook on the website and hope to get a seat on the next available flight or make your own arrangements to get to your destination.
Q. What about the cost of rebooking or accommodation while stranded?
A. Under the rules of EU261, airlines must compensate people for the disruption, for food, communications, accommodation and other out-of-pocket expenses. Keep all your receipts.
Q. How many people were disrupted on Friday?
A. 182 flights were cancelled around Europe, which was about 36,000 people.
Q. Which flights will be cancelled in the future?
A. At present Ryanair is not saying. Passengers will get a text a day or hours before to say their flight is cancelled and to apply for a refund.
Q. Will flights likely to be cancelled still be on sale in the future?
A. For the foreseeable future it is likely that flights will still appear in the booking system. As time goes on the airline will have to take them out of the system and passengers will be unable to book them.
Q. How much will it cost Ryanair in revenue and compensation?
A. No figures are available yet. However, we can estimate that the revenue loss will be substantial as some 1,900 flights will be cancelled.