Which are the flights Ryanair has cancelled up to end-October?

Ryanair has written to over 400,000 passengers to inform them that their flight has been cancelled after chief executive apologises for “messing up the allocation of annual leave to pilots in September and October”. Ryanair also rejected allegations that the real reason for the cancellations is a shortage of pilots.

O’Leary apologized “unreservedly” for a “mess of our own making” and went on to blame a rostering issue, which has resulted in the cancellation of “our 2,500 daily flights” in order to “provide extra standby cover and protect the punctuality of the 98% of flights that will be unaffected by these cancellations”, said O’Leary.

The airline said it will cancel 40-50 flights every single day until 31 October and promised that they will focus the cuts on routes where alternative flights are more easily available. Ryanair went on to add that those passengers who cannot or do not wish to take the alternative flights, “will receive a full refund and their €261 compensation”.

These cancellations have been allocated to Ryanair’s bigger base airports, and routes with multiple daily frequencies so that Ryanair can offer these disrupted customers the maximum number of alternate flights and routes in order to minimise inconvenience to them.

The full list of these flight cancellations (from Thurs 21st to Thurs Oct 31st) will appear on the Ryanair.com website later today, and customers affected by these cancellations will be emailed with offers of alternative flights or full refunds, and details of their EU261 compensation entitlement.

The airports where one line of flying will be removed for the next 6 weeks are as follows, (these airports have been selected because of the high frequency of flights Ryanair operates to/from these airports where customers can be offered the most accommodating options):

O’Leary rejected any suggestions that he should resign and went on to take responsibility; “it is my mess-up, and a mess I have to clear up”.