Many thousands of commuters have expressed their anger after budget airline Ryanair announced it was cancelling 40-50 flights a day for the next six weeks. However it seems Málaga airport has been extremely lucky, with only two flights so far having been affected during the entire period of cancellations.
According to the budget airline these cancellations were made due to rostering failure resulting in many pilots taking holidays at the same time and not enough to fly their planes.
In the last hour, after the Civil Aviation Authority threatened them with legal action it now seems as though Ryanair have now promised to give full refunds or rebooking on their flights or comparable low cost flights they have also now said they will reimburse out of pocket expenses such as hotels car hire and meals which a few weeks ago they refused to do.
Unfortunately Ryanair have said that they expect to have to cancel yet another 18,000 flights resulting in this statement from the CAA’s chief executive, Andrew Haines, “Where we find that an airline is systematically flouting the rules, we will not hesitate to take action, to minimise the harm and detriment caused to passengers, as we have done with Ryanair in recent days. It appears that Ryanair has now capitulated. We will review their position in detail and monitor this situation to ensure that passengers get what they are entitled to in practice.”
Not a great time for Mr Ryanair Michael O´Leary who has been the CEO since 1994, his talent for publicity is undeniable and valuable; at least it has been until now. He has a near 4% shareholding worth about £670m, so he ought to be motivated.