Skycops, a firm that specialises in fighting for compensation following air travel delays and cancellations claims Ryanair could face a bill of up to $72 million USD following the budget carriers decision to cancel 40-50 flights per day for six weeks. And that’s just in obligatory compensation payouts, with the true cost of the fiasco potentially much, much higher.
At the end of last week, Ryanair made public its intention to cancel 2% of its daily departures, initially blaming it on a need to “improve its system-wide punctuality.” Since the initial fallout, it’s since emerged that much of Ryanair’s woes lead back to its overworked pilots.
Ryanair says the core of the problem is that pilots are owed holidays to bring the airline in line with new rules mandated by the Irish government. But pilot groups claim flight crew are leaving Ryanair in droves for better-paying rivals such as Norwegian Air Shuttle and further afield to airlines in China and the Middle East.
Perhaps not realising how hostile the public reaction to the news would be, Ryanair was forced on the backfoot and has since taken steps to mitigate the bad press stemming from the public relations nightmare.
“Ryanair is not short of pilots” – Michael O’Leary
The airline’s bombastic chief executive, Michael O’Leary said of the crisis: “we apologise unreservedly to those customers whose travel will be disrupted” and admitted, “This is a mess of our own making”. He promised to accommodate most passengers on alternative flights that left either on the same or next day of the cancelled flight.
But O’Leary has been quick to respond to the allegations of pilot unrest amongst its ranks of flight crew. “Ryanair is not short of pilots,” the outspoken CEO said on Monday. He continued: “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 Sept and Oct because we are trying to allocate a full year’s leave into a 9 month period from April to December.”
Ryanair plans to hire 120 new pilots in a fortnight
Yet at Ryanair’s annual general meeting today, executives announced plans to recruit 120 new pilots in the “next week or two“. There’s even talk of the airline forcing pilots to change their holiday plans to reduce the number of anticipated cancellations.
Things though, might not go the way Ryanair plans – although unrepresented by a union, some Ryanair pilot groups across Europe say they will “work to rule” as tensions mount between bosses and staff. They say Ryanair is leading a “race to the bottom” in workers benefits and rights. Ryanair is offering a one-off £12,000 bonus to pilots who forego their holiday entitlement but many are said to have rejected the offer outright.
As for customers, they might have to be prepared for a fight as well.
Affected passengers might not be eligible for compensation
“Based on customer watchdog Which? analysis, Ryanair ignores more than half of all customer complaints. Which? revealed that in 2016 Ryanair’s decision to refuse compensation was wrong in 77% of cases,” claimed Marius Stonkus, Skycop’s chief executive.
“Ryanair, for a low fare, seems to sell not only budget flights but also poor quality service.”
Stonkus is encouraging any customer who has been affected by the cancellations to claim statutory compensation under European regulations – EU261. In some cases, this can amount to €600. But Ryanair might have an outer on this matter as well – The regulations only cover passengers who have been given less than two weeks notice.
By Monday, Ryanair had already emailed all 315,000 passengers who were going to be affected. The airline says it will either “re-accommodate or refund” passengers – the chances of Ryanair paying out compensation as well are probably still quite slim.
