Ryanair cancelled passengers 'will get same-day or next-day flight', or refund and compensation, says chairman

The Irish carrier has published a list of cancelled flights on its website as well as emailing all travellers.

Spain routes affected include one of 12 lines of flights in Barcelona and one of 13 in Madrid, whilst for the British Isles, one of 23 has been axed to and from Dublin and two of 41 from London Stansted.

Others affect Portugal's two main cities – Lisbon, with one of four cancelled and Oporto, with one of eight called off – and Italy with one in three cancelled from Rome Fiumicino and one in 14 from Milan Bergamo, two cities which have more than one airport, as is the case with Brussels where one of 13 lines of flights has been cancelled from Charleroi.

Although 2,000 flights in six weeks – or 40 to 50 a day – sounds a lot, the sheer number of trips run by one of Europe's most prolific airlines means that, in practice, the total cancelled only comes to 2% of those operating, meaning 98% of customers will still be able to travel on the flight they booked.

“The majority of these passengers will be offered alternative flights on the same or next day,” says Ryanair in a press release.

“For those passengers who cannot, or do not wish to, take the alternative flights offered, they will receive a full refund and their EU261 compensation.”

This European Union directive covers flights delayed for more than three hours or cancelled, except due to circumstances outside the airline's control, and typically means compensation payments of around €250 depending upon the situation and journey.

Ryanair processes these in accordance with the EU261 regulations and payment is swift, and will be uncontested in the case of flights it has decided to cancel.

“Sorry. We messed up”

A statement released by the carrier's chairman Michael O'Leary admitted that it was 'pilot error' which led to the decision to cancel flights for the next six weeks to guarantee punctuality.

“We apologise unreservedly to those customers whose travel will be disrupted, and assure them that we have done our utmost to try to ensure that we can re-accommodate most of them on alternative flights on the same or next day,” O'Leary said.

In response to rumours that the flights had been called off because the airline did not have enough staff to go round, the chairman clarified: “Ryanair is not short of pilots – 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 September and October.

“We were trying to allocate a full year's leave into a nine-month period from April to December.

“This issue will not recur in 2018, as Ryanair goes back onto a 12-month calendar [annual] leave year from January 1 to December 31, 2018.”

O'Leary was refreshingly honest about where the blame lie.

“This is a mess of our own making. I apologise sincerely to all our customers for any worry or concern this has caused them over the past weekend.

“We have only taken this decision to cancel this small proportion of our 2,500 daily flights so that we can provide extra standby cover and protect the punctuality of the 98% of flights that will be unaffected by these cancellations.”