Ryanair Cancels Flights After Issue with Pilot Holidays

On Sunday, Ryanair cancelled about 82 flights, infuriating lots of passengers who reportedly had their holiday plans ruined. The company reportedly took this decision after mishandling the planning for the holidays of its pilots. Moreover, on Saturday, the airline announced that it is going to cancel about 40 to 50 flights for the next six weeks. According to their marketing officer, those passengers who had flights booked up to September 20 already know about the issue. The person also reassured customers that the company is working hard to solve the issue with the pilots’ holidays.

Ryanair cancels a lot of flights

It seems like the roots of the problem started from the company’s change of holiday year. It no longer runs from Aril to March, but from January from December. So, because a large number of staff members took their leave towards the end of the year, the holidays for the pilots had to take place in September and October. However, it seems like this is no small issue, as it could affect about 285,000 passengers. Ryanair will reportedly offer them either refunds or alternative flights.

Moreover, customers should check their emails to see the status of their flights. There is also a page on the company’s official website which offers a comprehensive list of all the cancelled flights. For example, 56 Monday flights have been cancelled, 55 on Tuesday, and so on and so forth. Supposedly, those cancellations are below 2% of the company’s flights and will not affect their yearly punctuality target which is 90%. But this is not about the company’s perfect score, but about people who will probably miss their bookings.

Therefore, many customers have complained about the issue on Twitter, saying that they lost their trust in this airline.

Never fly with @Ryanair again! Vacation from the 27th is already ruined by insecurity! Shame on #Ryanair ! #ryanaircancellations

— Patricia Toth (@patricia_zsofia) September 17, 2017

2% of your customers’ travel plans are in ruins. Due to lack of info, the other 98% are terrified! Well done Micko, best PR ever!

— Paul Waldron (@majorvonwaldron) September 16, 2017

Customers losing trust

And it seems those alternative flights the airline offers are usually not of much help. This is the situation of a customer who needed to fly from Leeds to Bratislava, on Friday. On Thursday, Ryanair cancelled his flight and offered him an alternative one. The only problem? On Monday he actually needed to come back from Bratislava, not fly there. Ryanair is currently the most popular low cost company in Europe.

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