It comes after the government authority gave Ryanair until 5pm on Friday to comply with EU regulations on delays and cancellations.
At 4pm the Irish carrier released a statement spelling 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.”
Responding, Andrew Haines, chief executive of the CAA said: “We can confirm we have received correspondence from Ryanair late this afternoon.
“Our job is to protect passengers’ rights and ensure that all airlines operating in the UK are fully compliant with important consumer laws.
“Where we find that an airline is systematically flouting these rules, we will not hesitate to take action, to minimise the harm and detriment caused to passengers, as we have done with Ryanair in recent days. It appears that Ryanair has now capitulated. We will review their position in detail and monitor this situation to ensure that passengers get what they are entitled to in practice."
He added: “We are consistent in this approach, and in the last six years the CAA has secured 22 legal undertakings from airlines and other travel companies on a range of issues to protect consumers.
"Furthermore, as part of our ongoing work to protect consumers, earlier this month we wrote to over 30 airlines seeking confirmation that they too are complying with the re-routing elements of EC261 legislation.”
