Yahoo Finance Ryanair axes another 18,000 flights hitting travel plans of 400,000 passengers
Crisis-hit Ryanair has revealed a further 18,000 flights will be axed over the winter affecting 400,000 passengers.
The beleaguered carrier said it was making the move “to end rostering cancellations by slowing growth this winter”.
It means withdrawing 25 aircraft from its fleet of 400-plus between November and March.
MORE: Ryanair apologises for flight cancellation chaos with £40 voucher for passengers
Dozens of routes will be caught up in this latest round of cancellations, with passengers once again paying the price for the airline’s ongoing issue surrounding pilot availability. The temporary suspension includes London Stansted to Edinburgh and Glasgow, Gatwick to Belfast, Newcastle to Faro, and Glasgow to Las Palmas.
Earlier this month, it left scores of travellers stranded abroad or unable to travel by cancelling 50 flights a day, many with just a few hours’ notice.
Ryanair blamed a “mess-up” on the pilot holiday roster which left it no option but to axe more than 2,000 flights up until the end of October.
It was revealed on Wednesday that the 315,000 passengers affected by that action were to receive an emailed letter, signed by chief executive Michael O’Leary, apologising for the mess and also giving a €40 travel voucher for the inconvenience.
MORE: Ryanair attempts to win back customers with £5 flights to France and Germany
Today, the airline said: “Flying 25 fewer aircraft this winter will result in a number of flight and schedule changes from Nov to Mar 2018.
“We have less than 400,000 customers booked on these flights, (which affects less than 1 flight per day across our 200 airports over the 5 month winter period), and many of these flights have zero bookings at this time.
“Less than 1% of the 50m customers Ryanair will carry this winter are affected and every one of these customers has received an email today giving them between 5 weeks to 5 months notice of these schedule changes, offering them alternative flights or full refunds of their airfare.”
It added: “The total cost of the flight cancellations last week should be under €25m. We expect the cost of the free flight vouchers issued today to affected customers will be less than €25m.”
MORE: 7 things you need to know about Ryanair’s cancelled flights
It gave no figure for how much the latest round of cancellations would cost.
The airline said in a statement that it “appreciated the widespread support” from pilots – despite claims many across Europe were willing to “work to rule” in a dispute over conditions.
Indeed, they had already rejected an offer of €12,000 to defer holidays to cover the current situation.
Ryanair said it had agreed to pay a €10,000 bonus per captain to those willing to work.
