Ryanair has bowed to pressure from the CAA and promised to refund and re-accommodate customers affected by its flight cancellations.
The carrier had been given until 5pm on Friday to comply with EU regulations on delays and cancellations.
In a statement, the airline spelled out its refund and rerouting options. It said: ‘A full refund will be given of an unused flight sector and associated fees. If the disrupted flight is their outbound sector, customers will also be offered a full refund of the return sector.’
For passengers who can be rerouted, Ryanair will offer customers a move to the next available Ryanair flight on the same route. If this option is not available same or next day, then it will move the customer to the next available Ryanair flight from and to a suitable alternative airport - such as Luton or Gatwick in the case of Stansted departures.
If this option is not available same or next day, then it will offer the customer re-accommodation on Easyjet, Jet2, Vueling, Cityjet, Aer Lingus, Norwegian or Eurowings. If these carriers’ flights are not available same or next day, it will offer ‘any comparable alternative transport’ (another airline flight, train, bus or car hire) with the cost of this comparable transport ticket to be assessed ‘on a case by case basis’.
Ryanair’s chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said: “Over the past week we have refunded/re-accommodated over 97% of the customers affected by the 18th September cancellations.
"This week (by close of business on Sun, 1st Oct), we will have re-accommodated/refunded over 90% of the 400,000 customers who were notified of schedule changes (on flights between November 2017 and March 2018) on Wed 27th.”
Andrew Haines, CAA chief executive said: “We can confirm we have received correspondence from Ryanair which we are now reviewing to ensure all our requirements have been met.
“Our job is to protect passengers’ rights and ensure that all airlines operating in the UK are fully compliant with important consumer laws."