RYANAIR has said it will ground flights this winter and into next spring to end the pilot rostering chaos.
The airline announced earlier this month they were to cancel up to 50 flights a day to the end of October to allocate annual leave for cabin crew and pilots.
Today, September 27, Ryanair said it will 'slow its growth' by flying 25 less aircraft of its 400 fleet from November to March, and 10 fewer aircrafts of a fleet of 445 from April 2018.
From November to March, 34 flight routes will be suspended. Currently there are less than 400,000 customers booked on these flights.
The flight cancellations will affect less than one flight per day across 200 airports over the five month winter period, the airline said.
Scroll down to see the 34 routes suspended this winter...
Affected customers have received an email today giving them between five weeks to five months notice of the schedule changes, offering them alternative flights or full refunds of their airfare.
Passengers have also received a €40 or €80 return travel voucher which will allow them to book – during October - a flight on any Ryanair service between October and March 2018.
For passengers unaffected by the flight cancellations and schedule changes, the grounding of flights means that there is no risk of further roster related flight cancellations.
By reducing its flying schedule, Ryanair said it 'will eliminate all risk of further flight cancellations, as slower growth creates spare aircraft and crews across its 86 bases this winter.'
The airline also plans to roster all of the extra pilot leave necessary in October, November and December to meet the IAA’s requirement to complete a nine month annual leave transition period so that Ryanair starts a new calendar leave year from January 1, 2018 with no leave backlog.
For pilots, Ryanair said their annual leave is 'protected' and grounding flights will provide stability to pilot rosters.
The airline is also implementing base supplements of €10,000 for Captains and €5,000 for First Officers at Dublin, Stansted, Berlin and Frankfurt from October 1.
Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said: “We sincerely apologise to those customers who have been affected by last week’s flight cancellations, or these sensible schedule changes announced today.
"While over 99 per cent of our 129million customers will not have been affected by any cancellations or disruptions, we deeply regret any doubt we caused existing customers last week about Ryanair’s reliability, or the risk of further cancellations.
"From today, there will be no more rostering related flight cancellations this winter or in summer 2018.
"Slower growth this winter, will create lots of spare aircraft and crews which will allow us to manage the exceptional volumes of annual leave we committed to delivering in the 9 months to December 2017.
"We will start a new 12 month leave period on the 1st of Jan 2018 in full compliance with EU regulations and the IAA’s requirements.
"All of the passengers who have been affected by these disruptions have now been offered re-accommodation or full refunds and their applicable EU261 entitlements.
"In addition today, they are receiving a travel voucher €40 one way or €80 return which they may use to book any Ryanair flight of their choice during October for travel between October and March 2018.
"We look forward to welcoming them all on board.”
These are the 34 routes suspended for the winter season from November 2017 to March 2018...
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