Ryanair promises refunds for flight cancellations
Ryanair has vowed to contact all of its customers affected by cancelled flights to explain their rights to compensation.
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After demands from the Civil Aviation Authority, the budget airline promised to notify every customer in an attempt to avert legal action following the cancellation of up to 50 flights a day until the end of October, affecting 315,000 passengers, and the scrapping of 18,000 flights between November and March, hitting 400,000 passengers.
The 34 Ryanair routes suspended for this winter include Gatwick to Belfast, Newcastle to Faro and Glasgow to Las Palmas.
On Friday, the carrier met with the Irish Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) and agreed to implement a series of steps to address the CAR's requirements to ensure that all customers affected by the flight cancellations are fully aware of their EU261 rights and entitlements, including full refunds, or re-accommodation onto other Ryanair flights or other comparable transport options with reimbursement of reasonable out of pocket expenses.
Ryanair said the steps agreed with the CAR include a clarification email to all affected customers outlining their rights to refunds or re-routing on other comparable transport options and expenses, as well as an explanation to customers on how and when they will be re-accommodated on other Ryanair flights or other airline flights on the Ryanair website.
In a statement, the airline took a swipe at the CAA and said: "Ryanair has called upon the UK CAA to now require UK airlines to comply with these EU261 obligations which the CAA did not apply to British Airways in May this year, when a computer meltdown stranded hundreds of thousands of British citizens/visitors at London Heathrow and many other airports, with no apparent action taken by the CAA in respect of re-accommodation or enforcement against British Airways."
