Ryanair says that by reducing its flying schedule, it will eliminate all risk of roster-related flight cancellations.
A little under 400,000 customers are set to be affected by Ryanair schedule changes as a result of a reduction of the airline’s flying schedule between the months of November and March.
Ryanair confirmed on Wednesday that it will slow its growth this winter by flying 25 less aircraft (of its 400 fleet) from November and 10 fewer aircraft (of 445) from April 2018 in an effort to eliminate the roster-related flight cancellations that have affected thousands of customers in recent weeks.
Ryanair says that less than 400,000 customers are booked on flights between November 2017 and March 2018 and that the changes will affect less than one flight a day across Ryanair’s 200 airports over a five-month period.
All customers affected by the changes have received an email giving them between five weeks’ and five months’ notice of the schedule changes, offering them alternative flights or full refunds of their airfare. They have also received a €40 (€80 return) travel voucher which will allow them to book – during the month of October – a flight on any Ryanair service between October 2017 and March 2018.
The changes will, according to Ryanair, eliminate all risk of further flight cancellations because a reduction in the flying schedule will create spare aircraft and crew across Ryanair’s 86 bases over the winter.
Ryanair will also roster all of the extra pilot leave necessary in October, November and December to meet the IAA’s requirement to complete a nine-month annual leave transition period (April to December 2017) so that Ryanair starts a new calendar leave year from January 1, 2018 with no backlog.
The airline will also roster almost 40% of the annual pilot leave requirement for 2018 in the first quarter of 2018, removing the risk of roster problems recurring next year.
Furthermore, the airline has rolled out a series of low-fare seat sales for winter 2017, with confidence that there will be no further roster related cancellations.
As for the 315,000 customers affected by flights cancelled in a six-week period in September and October, Ryanair have emailed each passenger affected and offered them a €40 travel voucher (€80 return), for travel between October 2017 and March 2018.
This voucher is in addition to the flight re-accommodation/refunds received by affected customers last week and applicable to the EU261 compensation which they may claim and receive over the coming weeks.
Commenting on the schedule changes, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said: “We sincerely apologise to those customers who have been affected by last week’s flight cancellations, or these sensible schedule changes announced today.
“While over 99% of our 129m customers will not have been affected by any cancellations or disruptions, we deeply regret any doubt we caused existing customers last week about Ryanair’s reliability, or the risk of further cancellations.
“From today, there will be no more rostering related flight cancellations this winter or in summer 2018. Slower growth this winter will create lots of spare aircraft and crews which will allow us to manage the exceptional volumes of annual leave we committed to delivering in the nine months to December 2017. We will start a new 12-month leave period on January 1, 2018 in full compliance with EU regulations and the IAA’s requirements.
“All of the passengers who have been affected by these disruptions have now been offered re-accommodation or full refunds and their applicable EU261 entitlements. In addition today, they are receiving a travel voucher (€40 one way/€80 return) which they may use to book any Ryanair flight of their choice during October for travel between October and March 2018. We look forward to welcoming them all on board.”
