Ireland's aviation watchdog has been bombarded with calls over Ryanair

The regulator will rope in extra staff to deal with the high volume of complaints.

By Conor McMahon Deputy editor, Fora

IRELAND’S AVIATION REGULATOR has said it is getting up to 300 calls a week from passengers affected by Ryanair’s series of cancelled flights.

Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) boss Cathy Mannion told Newstalk Breakfast today that the body is ramping up a campaign improve consumers’ awareness of their rights.

“We’re dealing with 200 to 300 inquiries a week,” she said, adding that the CAR expects this number to increase after Ryanair cancelled another 18,000 flights for the winter period. Extra staff will be brought in to deal with the anticipated higher volume of calls.

Mannion stressed that people whose flights have been cancelled up until 2 October – with less than two weeks notice – are due €250 in compensation under European rules.

“The onus is on everybody, all these passengers, to make a claim to Ryanair for the compensation in addition to any other claim they may make for care and assistance,” she said.

She stressed that Ryanair’s offer of a €40 voucher to affected passengers does not count as compensation.

“Ryanair has chosen to give a voucher, but that’s in addition to their compensation,” she said.

Ryanair cancellations
Source: Niall Carson/PA Wire/PA Images

Legal action

In the UK, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) threatened legal action against Ryanair for allegedly “misleading passengers”.

It claimed the airline didn’t give correct consumer information to passengers about their passenger rights.

Ryanair told Fora through a statement that it “will be meeting with the CAA and will comply fully with whatever requirements they ask us to”.

The CAA deals with both passenger rights issues and airline regulation in the UK. In Ireland, those roles are divided between the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) and CAR.

IAA said it only deals with airline safety regulation: “All airlines, including Ryanair have alwasy been, and continue to be, fully compliant with regulations in this area,” a spokeswoman said.

Matters concerning passenger rights fall under the CAR’s remit. The body had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

Yesterday, Ryanair announced that it will fly fewer aircraft during the winter. Up to 400,000 passengers are expected to be hit with cancelled flights.

The decision to fly 25 fewer aircraft from November and 10 fewer from April 2018 will result in 18,000 flight cancellations. Ryanair said it is offering alternate flights or refunds to the customers affected.

The move comes as the airline tries to tackle resourcing problems that led to the airline axing 50 flights a day during six weeks in September and October in a move that affected hundreds of thousands of passengers.

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