More than 50,000 passengers booked on summer holiday Ryanair flights have been told their trips have been cancelled.
Ryanair has cancelled “up to 300” flights in response to coordinated 48-hour strikes by cabin crew in Belgium, Portugal and Spain on Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 July.
Most of the cancelled flights affect Spanish destinations, where around a quarter of the carrier’s 830 daily services have been grounded but Portugal does not escape as 50 flights between Portugal and European destinations also have been scrapped.
The airline considers these stoppages to be, "unnecessary strikes" and will send messages a week in advance to its customers that had booked to travel next week to inform them that their flights will be canceled.
On the strike days, one in three flights will be scrapped in Portugal but as to which airports and passengers will be affected, the picture is unclear.
Ryanair management is determined to maintain its stance that employees, in whichever country they are based, sign up to an Irish work contracts which, claims the airline, gives workers all sorts of rights and a good level of pay.
Ryanair’s Chief marketing Officer, Kenny Jacobs, apologised to passengers but couldn’t help having a dig at the airline’s staff,
"Ryanair apologizes to customers affected by these disruptions, which we tried to avoid at all costs. Whereas Ryanair's cabin crew earns excellent salaries of up to €40,000 per year in countries with high youth unemployment, leading work hours within the industry (14 days off per month), excellent sales commissions, a uniform allowance and paid sick leave, these strikes are completely unjustified and will only result in disruption to family holidays and will benefit competing airlines in Portugal, Spain and Belgium."
A group called Cabin Crew United is coordinating the strike through the International Transport Workers’ Federation. A spokesperson said, “Ryanair has yet to provide any concrete improvement in pay and conditions for any workers across its network. It is clear that Ryanair has a long way to go before it wins a reputation as a good employer.”
Portuguese consumer protection association Deco has weighed in to the fray with a formal complaint against Ryanair to the National Civil Aviation Authority for "unfair trading practices" in selling air tickets on flights that the airline knew would not be taking off.
