It comes after the Civil Aviation Authority launched enforcement action against Ryanair, accusing the carrier of “persistently misleading passengers with inaccurate information regarding their rights” following its recent wave of cancellations.
The move followed the latest raft of flight cancellations by Ryanair announced yesterday, with a total of 18,000 flights cancelled between November and March, affecting around 400,000 passengers. It came just two weeks after the airline cancelled 2,100 flights.
In a statement released last night, the CAA revealed it had written to Ryanair earlier in the month to clarify its legal obligations, and to seek “assurances around how and when it would reroute passengers onto alternative flights.”
It added that it had “told the airline to make a corrective public statement, to ensure customers were not misled and had accurate comprehensive information relating to their rights and entitlements”.
However the CAA said Ryanair’s latest round of cancellations announced yesterday had “again failed to provide customers with the necessary and accurate information relating to their passenger rights, particularly around rerouting and care and assistance entitlements, which includes expenses”.
Andrew Haines, chief executive of the Civil Aviation Authority said: “There are clear laws in place, which are intended to assist passengers in the event of a cancellation, helping minimise both the frustration and inconvenience caused by circumstances completely out of their control.
“We have made this crystal clear to Ryanair, who are well aware of their legal obligations, which includes how and when they should reroute passengers, along with the level of information it provides its passengers. The information Ryanair published today again fails to makes this clear.
“In expediting our enforcement action we are seeking to ensure that Ryanair’s customers will receive the correct and necessary information, to make an informed choice about an alternative flight.”
Ryanair responded with a statement this morning, insisting: “We will be meeting with the CAA and will comply fully with whatever requirements they ask us to.”
The CAA added that it would separately continue to investigate the airline’s rerouting policy.
