Ryanair cancels hundreds of flights after ‘messing up pilot holidays’

Irish airline Ryanair has cancelled more than 160 flights over the weekend and will call of 164 more flights over the next three days after what it termed as messing up “in the planning of pilot holidays”.

The cancellations are likely to affect 30,000 passengers, according to a report.

The staff leave must be allocated before the end of the year. Ryanair also said air traffic control strikes and weather disruptions were affecting its performance.

The airline said it would cancel 40-50 flights every day for the next six weeks, according to the BBC. “We have messed up in the planning of pilot holidays and we’re working hard to fix that,” marketing officer Kenny Jacobs was quoted as saying by BBC.

Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers sent emails to the first affected passengers on Friday, giving them the choice of a refund or an alternative flight.

The cancellations brought bad publicity for an airline which has worked hard over the past few years to improve its image.

News bulletins in Ireland ran interviews with disgruntled customers while newspapers asked readers to share their stories, including a wedding party who told the Irish Times they had been left stranded in France.

The Irish Independent reported on Monday that recruitment problems were also affecting Ryanair and that it had lost 140 pilots to rival Norwegian Air so far this year.

With inputs from Reuters