Ryanair cancellations due to backlog of staff leave
 

Hi there

On Thursday I received an email from Ryanair saying my flight from Tours to Dublin had been cancelled. They blamed it on industrial action but it appears that it is down to Ryanair star holidays!!!

My big problem was that i needed to get to Dublin as I was meeting a friend who was flying in from Leeds so that we could go and work over on the west coast of Ireland.

All I could do was rebook the flight, which they did for free, and get a train from Tours to La Rochelle earlier in the day. So I flew earlier but the inconvenience that put onto to me was a nightmare. And all because of staff holidays!!!!!!

Would appreciate some advice :)

I'd be inclined to ask them to be more specific on which industrial action they are referring to and then take it from there.

Perhaps it was the industrial action of their staff going on vacation? :D

I spoke to the check in staff at La Rochelle and they said the industrial action was on the 12th.

Last night when I arrived in west Ireland it was all over the papers that Ryanair had cancelled flights due to problems with staff holidays!

An insider (according to the Independent's travel journo) says that Ryanair are very short staffed due to lots of people leaving and it's now got critical but the airline are not admitting it. They aren't informing travellers of the cancellations until a few hours before to prevent them from going elsewhere, you can of course cancel yourself but then you lose your money so it's a game of Russian Roulette as to what you should do.

Indeed there are press reports out today, see here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41291483

Extract:
"Ryanair is to cancel 40 to 50 flights every day for the next six weeks, in a bid to improve punctuality of flights. The budget Irish-based airline announced the plan on Friday, saying that it was "unacceptable" that its punctuality had fallen below 80% in the first half of this month. It also said it had to clear a backlog of staff leave by the end of the year."

My experience of this sort of thing is that they are keeping an eye on the various rules relating to working hours of their crews, at this time of the year they need to have enough staff able to work within their maximum annual working time limits.

EC261 article 7 compensation would apply in this scenario, unless 2 weeks notice had been given, and if you had to go to another airport in the area to the one booked, thereby incurring additional travel costs, I believe that to be recoverable too.

Because the 2 week notice period is well known, and therefore Ryanair could run their crystal ball out to work out the implications of their future workload and staff leave requirements, it is surprising that Ryanair are cancelling flights at short notice. With a bit of cleverness they could minimise their compensation losses, by either giving more notice or concentrating on higher frequency routes like DUB-STN. I think they are in a very painful situation to allow this to happen.

Ok. So even though I was able to change my flight and got an earlier one from a different airport can I still claim?

Subject to the precise timings and distances, yes. If you departed more than 1 hour earlier, for example, you may be entitled to 125€. There are detailed EC261 threads on the BA and AY forums.

Thank you! First time ever for me having a flight cancelled so not up to speed on it.

What the something is going on with Ryanair? I'm surprised there isn't a dedicated thread.

I as wrong about cancelling in advance with Ryanair, it can't be done, there is no way to cancel a booking other than when they initiate it by cancelling the flight.

The position we are in is that we have family (daughter, son-in-law and three very young children) visiting UK/France from NZ and when booking opened we booked for them to fly STN-LIG on Ryanair on the 29th Sept but now we won't know until a maximum of 24 hours before if the flight will be cancelled or not which is no good at all to make alternative arrangements for a family of 5 with all their luggage at short notice. If they managed to give a weeks notice then we can make alternative arrangements, they must know well in advance which flights they are cancelling, but they won't do that as they want to prevent you going elsewhere. We are going to have to make other arrangements as the uncertainty is no good for them or us so we'll just have to lose the money if the flight is not cancelled but will apply for the refund if it is.

I hope to fly tomorrow but you never know. Aren't passengers entitled EU261 compensation? Fro the EU page:
If your flight is cancelled you have the right to reimbursement, re-routing or return, as well as the right to assistance and a right to compensation. Compensation is due if you were informed less than 14 days prior to the scheduled departure date. The air carrier has the obligation to prove if and when you were personally informed that the flight was cancelled. If this is not the case you can contact your national authority[222 KB]for further assistance.

I was expecting to fly on the Dublin-Tours flight on the same day as the OP. I think by most people's perspective the situation was within Ryanair's control but I expect Ryanair will deny any EU261 comp claim by stating the situation was outside their control. I'll still probably file a claim as a way to not give up rights, and in case a gov't or class-action-like situation provokes them to pay claims. I'm just not sure the info for a US bank acct will conform to their expectations/requirements for where to deposit funds.

I don't think Ryanair will deny EU261 compensation. They wouldn't have a hope in hell of succeeding in court with that argument.

Put in your claim directly with Ryanair as instructed on their website and, subject to the cancellation being within the relevant deadlines etc, you should get your compensation.

FR is perfectly capable of paying into a US bank. In fact, FR can pay into any banking system in the world which participates in SWIFT. It really is not a big deal as you can pay your babysitter in EUR, US$, CAD or whatever.

Moreover, FR can issue a prepaid card which functions as a Visa/MasterCard debit or send a check. It is on FR to get the compensation to you.