Ryanair cancels 2,100 flights in Sep-Oct 2017, and 18,000 more in Nov 2017-Mar 2018

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Inquirer
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Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by Inquirer »

I agree the typical Ryanair passenger will quickly forget: they have a Christmas sale and all is forgiven.

The lasting problem is that all of this has made a joke of the elaborate “always getting better” product enhancement program, launched in 2014 to turn itself from an airline you fly once a year to go on a holiday or to visit some friends abroad with, into a reliable travel option for corporate frequent flyers flying almost every week too.

We should remember customers no longer have to choose between a 250 euro ticket on a traditional airline or a 25 euro Ryanair ticket these days.
In many markets there's now also an alternative option in between: an attractively priced ticket on a hybrid airline, a product without all the often unneeded frivolities of a traditional operator maybe, yet also without any of the many typical Ryanair drawbacks people had only accepted so far because it allowed them to save lots of money vs the traditional airlines.
Once the potential savings that could be made weren't so big any more, enough ordinary people started to defect to those hybrid airlines to sufficiently hurt the traditional Ryanair business and thus it had no choice but to improve its own product too in order to stem the losses, all while boasting about its punctuality, reliability and efficiency in order to attract the corporate flyers as well, now within reach thanks to those product improvements.

With this week's events, Ryanair have basically demonstrated to all those corporate clients that despite all the cosmetic enhancements made over the last few years, deep down they are still very much what was feared: a completely unreliable alternative and that is something which will definitely be remembered by procurement departments all around Europe!
They will not forget so easily as individual passengers tend to do, nor will they change their travel policy lightly.

Not to mention that communication has been handled completely unprofessionally too, btw!
Ryanair initially tried to justify the cancellations as a move to improve its punctuality (probably in order to save the image of 'always getting better'?), after which it started to blame a short lived strike in France or some weather events in Spain or Italy (?) for what now turns out to be a 6 week long odyssee?
All while it must have seen this coming much sooner than at 4:30PM on a Friday in mid September, surely?

Has Ryanair proactively communicated with their (affected) customers asap?
Has it been forthcoming about the full scale of cancelations right away?
Have they gone out of their way to find a customer focused solution?
Not a single plane lease was announced as far as I know?
It's not the attitude you want your airline partner to have, as a corporate flyer.
Clearly, you can take Mr. O'leary out of the street, but you can't take the street out of Mr. O'leary, so he should go... that is if Ryanair is serious about its 'always getting better' program at least, something which I remind is essential for the long term growth and even survival of this company.
Mr. O'leary has changed the market in the past, yet the market is changing again today and if he can't change with it, he will be overtaken by others, just like he have overtaken others in the previous cycle of change: so is life.

Boeing767copilot
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Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by Boeing767copilot »

RYANAIR CANCELLATIONS – UPDATE

Ryanair today (Wed 20th Sept) provided an update on its progress at working through the cancellation of 2,100 of its 103,000 flights over the next 6 weeks as follows:

- All 315,000 customers received email notices on Mon 18th advising them of their flight changes and offering alternative flights, refunds and EU261 notices. (The figure is lower than the original 390,000 estimate because forward bookings in September were 90% but October were 70%)
- By close of business on Wed 20th, Ryanair expects to have re-accommodated over 175,000 customers on other Ryanair flights – over 55% of affected customers.
- By close of business on Wed 20th, more than 63,000 flight refunds will have been processed (over 20% of affected customers)
- The airline has taken on extra customer service staff to expedite the backlog of flight change requests and refunds.
- Ryanair expects to have processed over 300,000 alternative routings or refunds for customers (over 95% of affected customers) by the end of this week – within 6 days of customers being notified of these flight cancellations.

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/ryana ... 0-refunds/

Passenger
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Joined: 06 Dec 2010, 20:54

Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by Passenger »

We're missing one figure: the number of indemnities (250 or 400 €) that already have been paid out for cancelled flights.

Perhaps the legal department is still working on the reply mail like... though some of our managers inititially said that all passengers would receive compensation, we now have established that the cancellation of your particular flight was directly and solely due to overtime by the crew planned for that flight - overtime that was directly caused by several ATC strikes in France and by severe thunderstorms in Southern Europe. Hence extraordinary circumstances apply...

regi
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Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by regi »

BRUflyer wrote: 20 Sep 2017, 08:51 People tend to forget. Remember the public outrage and everybody boycotting Renault after they closed their plant in Vilvoorde?
I don't forget. I had a Renault and it needed to be replaced. I used the quotations from Renault every 5 years to buy a new Citroën. ( which also closed in the past a factory in Belgium - but that was before my time and before major state subsidies )

I have said in the past that I would not fly Ryanair again for business purposes after 1 major hick up. I have used them just once for a private flight afterwards. Never again for business. I used other LCC sometimes for business and without 1 hick up.

sean1982
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Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by sean1982 »

regi wrote: 20 Sep 2017, 17:15
BRUflyer wrote: 20 Sep 2017, 08:51 People tend to forget. Remember the public outrage and everybody boycotting Renault after they closed their plant in Vilvoorde?
I don't forget. I had a Renault and it needed to be replaced. I used the quotations from Renault every 5 years to buy a new Citroën. ( which also closed in the past a factory in Belgium - but that was before my time and before major state subsidies )

I have said in the past that I would not fly Ryanair again for business purposes after 1 major hick up. I have used them just once for a private flight afterwards. Never again for business. I used other LCC sometimes for business and without 1 hick up.
Considering that hick ups in aviation are quite common, would you make the same decision with any other airline in case of a hick up?

regi
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Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by regi »

sean1982 wrote: 20 Sep 2017, 17:35
regi wrote: 20 Sep 2017, 17:15
BRUflyer wrote: 20 Sep 2017, 08:51 People tend to forget. Remember the public outrage and everybody boycotting Renault after they closed their plant in Vilvoorde?
I have said in the past that I would not fly Ryanair again for business purposes after 1 major hick up. I have used them just once for a private flight afterwards. Never again for business. I used other LCC sometimes for business and without 1 hick up.
Considering that hick ups in aviation are quite common, would you make the same decision with any other airline in case of a hick up?
I have described that hick up in the past. It was not just 1 mishap ( which I endured also at other airlines.) It was a combination of several mishaps with 1 flight which made me come to that conclusion.
Since I decided never to use Ryanair again for business purposes, I have never again experienced such a thing.

Passenger
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Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by Passenger »

The Ryanair pilots have set an ultimatum for Friday:

http://www.independent.ie/business/iris ... 52735.html

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sn26567
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Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by sn26567 »

Fake or real?

Image

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André
ex Sabena #26567

Passenger
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Joined: 06 Dec 2010, 20:54

Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by Passenger »

Former Ryanair pilot: "Unless Ryanair treats pilots like me better, this crisis will be a long haul".

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -long-haul




airbuske
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Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by airbuske »

And at Eurowings:

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Best regards,

Airbuske

Passenger
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Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by Passenger »

There are some press reports in the U.K., suggesting that the title from this topic will soon have to be edited into: ... from mid-September to end-November 2017.

Boeing767copilot
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Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by Boeing767copilot »

Irish airline Ryanair is said to be suing pilots union IALPA and the Guardian for defamation, as it continues to deal with the scheduling crisis that has led to hundreds of flights being cancelled.
Responding to reports from a local journalist that Ryanair was taking legal action against both parties, a spokesperson for the budget airline said: "We don’t comment on pending legal matters, however we will issue legal proceedings against any media or unions which publish false claims about our safety."

http://www.cityam.com/272466/ryanair-is ... ardian-and

Passenger
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Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by Passenger »

Boeing767copilot wrote: 21 Sep 2017, 20:30 Irish airline Ryanair is said to be suing pilots union IALPA and the Guardian for defamation, as it continues to deal with the scheduling crisis that has led to hundreds of flights being cancelled.
Responding to reports from a local journalist that Ryanair was taking legal action against both parties, a spokesperson for the budget airline said: "We don’t comment on pending legal matters, however we will issue legal proceedings against any media or unions which publish false claims about our safety."
http://www.cityam.com/272466/ryanair-is ... ardian-and
Off course he is allowed to sue The Guardian - just like he was allowed to sue Dutch broadcaster KRO Reporter about those famous fuel emergency incidents. But he has lost that court case, and he has also lost the appeal.

I don't see anything in these press reports that would not stand a court case for freedom of press:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... cellations
https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... n-days-off


Passenger
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Joined: 06 Dec 2010, 20:54

Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by Passenger »

luchtzak wrote: 21 Sep 2017, 21:14 Ryanair will hire 120 in the coming two weeks: https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/ryana ... ing-weeks/
Ansett wrote: 21 Sep 2017, 22:41 Did MOL say where he would find/hire them ?
Perhaps easier said then done.
Today's statements are only ment as good news show for the shareholders (the AGM was today). As from tomorrow, it's back to reality. Example: Norwegian is going to open a base at Dublin, and they need 40 pilots. Wonder if those 120 already include the pilots that Ryanair will soon loose to Norwegian.

Boeing767copilot
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Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by Boeing767copilot »

Passenger wrote: 21 Sep 2017, 22:58
luchtzak wrote: 21 Sep 2017, 21:14 Ryanair will hire 120 in the coming two weeks: https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/ryana ... ing-weeks/
Ansett wrote: 21 Sep 2017, 22:41 Did MOL say where he would find/hire them ?
Perhaps easier said then done.
Today's statements are only ment as good news show for the shareholders (the AGM was today). As from tomorrow, it's back to reality. Example: Norwegian is going to open a base at Dublin, and they need 40 pilots. Wonder if those 120 already include the pilots that Ryanair will soon loose to Norwegian.
Dear Passenger, after all this years and after all your posts, we know what you thing about FR and MOL. ;) :(

Passenger
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Re: Ryanair cancels 40-50 flights a day from mid-September to end-October 2017

Post by Passenger »

Boeing767copilot wrote: 22 Sep 2017, 04:21 Dear Passenger, after all this years and after all your posts, we know what you thing about FR and MOL.
Well, the events from the last two weeks have proven that I was right, isn't it?

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