Great Western Coffee Shop

No doubt feeling sorry for GWR's high current cancellation rate, Ryanair have announced up to 50 flights a day for the next six weeks due to management failure regarding annual leave allocations.  That equates to roughly 2% of all flights they operate, and they hope to increase punctuality from below 80% to a more normal 90%.  Those figures sound familiar!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41291483

Except Ruanair haven't cancelled flights for tge whole six weeks, just tge next four days....and are still cancelling just with 24hrs notice. Many reporting their next flight is several days later! Yes, they have to pay hotel & subsistance, but pax may need to be home! At least the next train to Melsksgam isn't this Thursday!

Ryanair cancels flights after 'messing up' pilot holidays

Ryanair cancelled 82 flights on Sunday after admitting it had "messed up" the planning of its pilots' holidays.

The budget airline said on Saturday that it would cancel 40-50 flights every day for the next six weeks.

Marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said affected customers with bookings up to 20 September had been informed. "We have messed up in the planning of pilot holidays and we're working hard to fix that," he said.

Most of the cancellations are due to a backlog of staff leave which has seen large numbers of the airline's staff book holidays towards the end of the year.

The airline is changing its holiday year, which currently runs from April to March, to run from January to December instead.

Rynanair said the shift meant it had to allocate annual leave to pilots in September and October.

The cancellations could affect up to 285,000 passengers, who will be offered alternative flights or refunds.

Mr Jacobs said affected customers would have been sent an email. "We advise customers to check the email address used to make their booking," he added.

A page on the Ryanair website details flights cancelled up until 20 September. It says 56 flights are cancelled on Monday, 55 on Tuesday, and 53 on Wednesday.

Ryanair has said that less than 2% of its flights would be cancelled and the move would help it hit its annual punctuality target of 90%.

But passengers have complained about the resulting uncertainty.

Ryanair faces 20m euro compensation bill over cancellations

Ryanair could face up to 20m euros (£18m) in compensation claims after cancelling thousands of flights due to a shortage of pilots, it has warned.

The budget airline plans to cancel 40-50 flights every day for the next six weeks, after it admitted it had "messed up" the planning of pilot holidays.

An internal memo seen by the BBC suggests the pilot shortage could continue until the end of the year. There is no suggestion this means the disruption will extend beyond October.

In a letter to pilots, chief operations officer Michael Hickey said the firm's crewing forecast to the end of December was "for tighter pilot numbers". The letter shows Ryanair pilots were only informed on 13 September of the staff shortage facing the company yet Mr Hickey outlined that it knew last year they may face a leave backlog.

Pilots have been asked to work during their booked holiday to cover the gaps and their rota pattern is also likely to be disrupted. In the letter, Mr Hickey said these pilots would be "helping protect the integrity of the operation during the remainder of the flight year".

Ryanair also faces pressure to publish a full list of the flights it plans to cancel every day amid growing anger among customers. So far it has only published a list of affected flights up until Wednesday.

Consumer rights group Which? said: "It's essential that Ryanair release a full list of flights that will be affected so that passengers have as much time as possible to make alternate arrangements."

The airline has blamed a backlog of staff leave for the disruption, which could affect up to 400,000 passengers.

Ryanair is changing its holiday year, which currently runs from April to March, to run from January to December instead. This has led to large numbers of its staff taking holidays in September and October.

Reports on Monday also suggested recruitment problems were affecting the airline and that it had lost pilots to rival Norwegian Air.

A Norwegian spokesperson said: "We can confirm that 140 pilots have joined us from Ryanair this year. Pilot recruitment is also underway for more pilots for our new Dublin base opening later this year."

The airline has promised affected customers alternative flights or refunds. However, many have reacted angrily to the cancellations on social media and called for a full list of affected flights to be released.

Shares in Ryanair were down 2% on Monday afternoon.

Ryanair to publish full list of cancellations

(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/68C9/production/_97852862_gettyimages-461478454.jpg)

Ryanair customers whose flights are being cancelled, will receive an email by this evening informing them, chief executive Michael O'Leary has said.

The budget airline plans to cancel 40-50 flights every day for the next six weeks, after it admitted it had "messed up" the planning of pilot holidays.

The details of all the cancelled flights will be on the Ryanair website over the next 24 hours, the firm said.

Mr O'Leary said most people would still be able to fly on the same day. If not, they would be moved to flights the day before or the day after and the airline would meet its obligations over compensation.

The airline said it was cancelling flights at airports where it runs the busiest schedules, so it would be easier to accommodate passengers on alternative flights.

That will include flights operating out of the following airports: Barcelona, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, London Stansted, Madrid, Milan Bergamo, Porto and Rome Fiumi.

Mr O'Leary said around 400,000 passengers would be directly affected, but he said a decision had been made to disrupt the plans of 2% of travellers in order to offer a better service to the remaining customers.

Changes to the way the airline organises its holiday year have left Ryanair with a backlog of staff leave, meaning there is a shortage of pilots on standby over the next six weeks.

That meant any minor disruptions to flights were causing knock-on delays, because the airline did not have the flexibility it needed from back-up crews, said Mr O'Leary.

After 1 November, when the lighter winter schedule begins, there will not be any need for cancellations, he said.

He said they were also asking to buy back leave from pilots and alter the holiday schedule.

Mr O'Leary said Ryanair would honour all of its obligations to compensate passengers under EU regulations but would not book passengers onto flights with rival carriers.
"We will not pay for flights on other airlines, no. It is not part of the EU261 entitlement," he said, referring to European passenger rights legislation.

He said the airline did not have an overall shortage of pilots, but said they had "messed up" the rosters for September and October. "This is our mess-up. When we make a mess in Ryanair we come out with our hands up," he said. "We try to explain why we've made the mess and we will pay compensation to those passengers who are entitled to compensation, which will be those flights that are cancelled over the next two weeks."

If passengers are given more than 14 days notice of a cancellation, they are not entitled to compensation.

Hang on a minute BNM.  Its taken them 2 days to get to this point and I much suspect intense press publicity and a falling share price might have something to do with it, rather than concerns for passengers.....

Most of the cancellations are due to a backlog of staff leave which has seen large numbers of the airline's staff book holidays towards the end of the year.

The airline is changing its holiday year, which currently runs from April to March, to run from January to December instead.

2 days to get their house in order? Remarkably quick response

Very poor show from Ryanair, but not in my view comparable to GWR ongoing shortage of trains and drivers.

Most of those disgusted by Ryanair, can in future avoid the company if they so wish. Airlines compete with each other on both price and quality, Ryanair are arguably a low cost and low quality outfit.

GWR have an effective monopoly on many routes, if a customer is disappointed with them they cant use a competitor in most cases. The choice is GWR or drive in most cases.

(Graham - I don't think that's libellous?  ;) )

Seems to me that the most interesting part of this story is:


That looks self-inflicted, and entirely predictable. Would anyone care to guess what advantage was intended from changing the holiday year?

The total flight time of the sectors on which an individual crew member is assigned as an operating crew member
shall not exceed:
(1) 100 hours of flight time in any 28 consecutive days;
(2) 900 hours of flight time in any calendar year; and
(3) 1 000 hours of flight time in any 12 consecutive calendar months.

Presumably it'll be a combination of revised schedules in 2018 (booking periods not yet open) and additional recruitment.

I think that this is the beginning of the end for Ryanair.
Declining reputation, trouble retaining staff, and a new significant competitor.

I'll have a stab

Ryanair were in discussions with Norwegian as a feeder into their long-haul operation. Now since plug pulled for obvious reasons

Ryanair pilots reject bonus to work through cancellation crisis

A group of Ryanair pilots has rejected a cash bonus to work extra days after the airline cancelled 2,100 flights because it "messed up" crew holidays.

In a letter seen by the BBC, pilot representatives from 17 of the company's 80 or so European bases have told bosses that most are not enthused. They want new contracts and better working conditions instead.

Ryanair had offered captains a one-off payment of £12,000 or 12,000 euros, and first officers £6,000 or 6,000 euros. But the letter said: "The pilot market is changing, and Ryanair will need to change the ways which the pilots and management work together to ensure a stable and common future for everyone".

New contracts, it says, "should help stop the large number of colleagues who are leaving for "greener pastures". It also asks to bring in professional negotiators to help broker a deal. They have given the airline until tomorrow to respond.

One pilot told me that this is their one chance to improve conditions at work. The letter comes from staff based all over Europe including Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium and Sweden.

In recent days I've been contacted by almost 20 current and former Ryanair pilots telling me that the company is losing unhappy crews quicker than it can replace them. They all told me that a shortage of pilots is the key reason why so many flights have had to be cancelled in recent days.

But it is a claim strenuously denied by the airline's boss Michael O'Leary.

It seems that, for the first time, scattered Ryanair pilot reps are joining forces in some numbers - often making contact over social media - because they have spotted a chance to collectively bargain for new, improved contracts.

I asked Ryanair what they made of the counter-offer but they haven't got back to me yet.

The big question now is, if pilots decide to escalate things, say, a work to rule for example, will Ryanair be able to get through the next few weeks without having to cancel yet more flights? At the weekend Ryanair decided to cancel 40 to 50 flights every day for the next six weeks.

Ryanair said earlier that it had sent out emails to 315,000 affected customers on Monday, telling them about flight changes, alternative flights, and refunds. It said the fiasco was down to its own mistaken decision to force its pilots to take their remaining annual leave before the end of the year, rather than by the end of the financial year next March.

This means it does not have enough pilots to crew all its scheduled flights this month and next.

Ryanair plans to make pilots change holidays

(https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/A89D/production/_97956134_mediaitem97956132.jpg)
Boss Michael O'Leary at the Ryanair shareholder meeting

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has said the firm is planning to make pilots delay a week's holiday as it wrestles with massive flight cancellations.

His comments came at the airline's annual general meeting, which is being held in Dublin.

Ryanair is cancelling 40-50 flights every day for the next six weeks, after it admitted it had "messed up" the planning of pilot holidays.

A group of Ryanair pilots has rejected a cash bonus to work extra days.

Ryanair had offered captains a one-off payment of £12,000 or 12,000 euros, and first officers £6,000 or 6,000 euros, but they said they wanted new contracts and better working conditions instead.

Mr O'Leary told the AGM that Ryanair was facing a "significant management failure". He said pilots who had a four-week block of holidays coming up in the next few months because of rota changes would be told to take three weeks instead and have the other week in January. He said the firm did not need pilots' agreement for the change.

Mr O'Leary said the cancellations had cost Ryanair about 25 million euros (£22m).

He accused unions of trying to give the company "a bloody nose" and said staff did not want union representation.

400,000 more passengers to be hit by Ryanair cancellations

Ryanair will cancel another 18,000 flights between November and March, affecting the travel plans of another 400,000 passengers.

It will fly 25 fewer planes to cut the risk of further flight cancellations.

More than 30 routes will be suspended this winter, including Stansted to Edinburgh and Glasgow, Gatwick to Belfast and Newcastle to Faro.

Earlier this month the Irish airline cancelled up to 50 flights a day through to the end of October.

Those passengers affected by the move will be offered alternative flights or full refunds. They will also be offered vouchers of 40 euro (£35) one way or 80 euros return towards on alternative flights on top of any refund.

Ryanair said passengers affected by the cancellations up to the end of next month have been sent emails advising them of the flight changes.

The airline has blamed the summer cancellations on "messing up" pilot holiday rosters and again denied it had a pilot shortage. "In the current year less than 100 of over 2,000 captains left Ryanair (mainly retirements or to long haul airlines) and less than 160 F.O's [first officers] who have mainly left to join longhaul airlines," it said.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said: "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 nine months to December 2017."

The airline also said the total cost of the flight cancellations to date would be less 25m euros (£22m) and expected the cost of the free flight vouchers would be less than £22m.

Those passengers affected by the move will be offered alternative flights or full refunds. They will also be offered vouchers of 40 euro (£35) one way or 80 euros return towards on alternative flights on top of any refund.

Ryanair law breach leaves UK regulator CAA 'furious'

Ryanair has been threatened with legal action for "persistently misleading" passengers about their rights following thousands of flight cancellations.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)'s chief executive Andrew Haines said he was "furious" that the airline was not complying with the law.

The authority has launched "enforcement action" against Ryanair for wrongly claiming it did not have to re-route passengers on rival airlines.

Ryanair now says it will co-operate. In a brief statement, the airline said: "We already comply fully with all EU261 legislation, are meeting with the CAA and will comply fully with whatever requirements they ask us to."

The CAA's Mr Haines told the BBC that he very much doubted the dispute would get as far as the courts, but added it was "unacceptable" that Ryanair was disregarding the law and customers' rights. "These are simple things to fix and they're choosing not to fix them," he said. "People shouldn't have to choose between low fares and legal rights."

Mr Haines singled out Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary for particular criticism, telling Radio 5live: "Michael himself said he wasn't going to pay for passengers to fly on other airlines. That's against the law. My concern with Ryanair, and the reason we are speaking so openly, is they say one thing and yet they don't follow it through."

The fresh round of flight cancellations will be between November and March and affect the travel plans of a further 400,000 customers.

A total of 34 routes will be suspended this winter, including Stansted to Edinburgh and Glasgow, Gatwick to Belfast and Newcastle to Faro.

Earlier this month, the airline cancelled up to 50 flights a day through to the end of October, also affecting 400,000 passengers.

The regulator said that on both occasions Ryanair had failed to provide customers with "necessary and accurate" information about their rights.

Your rights explained
- Ryanair has about 24 hours after telling affected passengers of a cancellation to book them on an alternative Ryanair flight
- If the alternative Ryanair flight is not soon enough, or at a time that does not work for you, then you can tell Ryanair to book you on the most appropriate flight on an alternative airline at no extra cost to you
- Consumer group Which? says that it is best to make Ryanair do the legwork - rather than take a refund from the Ryanair flight, rebook yourself on another airline, and try to reclaim any extra cost from Ryanair if the new flight is more expensive. By doing so, you will probably only get a refund for the cancelled Ryanair flight, but not the difference for the more expensive alternative flight
- As more than two weeks' notice has been given for the new wave of flights cancellations, affected passengers will not be entitled to the extra compensation that is paid under EU rules for last-minute cancellations

Full refunds

The CAA said information provided on Ryanair's website failed to make it clear that the airline was obliged to refund all expenses incurred as a result of the flight cancellation.

Those expenses included meals, hotels, as well as transfer costs to re-route passengers on other airlines when there was no suitable alternative, the CAA said.

The airline has said that passengers affected by the move will be offered alternative flights or full refunds and had been emailed about advising them of flight changes occurring until the end of October.

They will also be offered vouchers of 40 euros (£35) one way, or 80 euros return, towards alternative flights on top of any refund.

Ryanair has blamed the series of flight cancellations on "messing up" pilot holiday rosters.

For those of you that are new to the FGW/GWR scene, the CAA's Mr Haines used to be MD of First Great Western before Mark Hopwood took over.

Ryanair given deadline to obey compensation rules

Ryanair has been told to correct its compensation policy for hundreds of thousands of passengers whose flights have been cancelled, by 5pm on Friday.

The UK's Civil Aviation Authority says the airline must stop misleading passengers about the option to be re-routed with another airline.

The regulator has ordered the budget airline to say publicly how it will re-route passengers who require it.

Ryanair must also say how it will reimburse their out-of-pocket expenses.

In addition, the beleaguered airline must promise to help any of the passengers whose flights have been cancelled in the past two weeks, but who may have chosen an unsuitable option as a result of being misled by Ryanair, the regulator said.

The demands cover passengers who were due to fly to and from the UK.

The airline recently cancelled flights affecting more than 700,000 passengers, from now until next March, in two separate tranches, because it had bungled the reorganisation of its pilots' leave arrangements.

On Wednesday the CAA said that if the airline did not fully comply with European Union (EU) rules on providing compensation then it would take the airline to court, with the possibility of an unlimited fine.

Now the CAA has set deadlines for Ryanair's compliance and once again taken the airline to task for its failings.

Referring to the Ryanair website, which must also be changed by Friday's deadline, the CAA says: "There is still no information here about how expenses will be treated where passengers are re-routed to and/or from other airports or where they otherwise incur additional out-of-pocket expenses as a result of the cancellations."

"Further changes are therefore required to make it clear that any such expenses will be reimbursed by Ryanair".

Demanding an end to Ryanair's "ongoing infringements" of the EU rules, the CAA said Ryanair had still failed to supply information requested a week ago on its refund and rerouting policy.

The regulator said it was "especially interested" in how the airline's call centre staff had been dealing with passengers.

Evidence seen by the BBC suggests that some travellers have been denied their rights. For instance, in a web chat with Ryanair on Thursday, a passenger called Matthew Rice said: "You are obligated to re-route me as advised in the CAA's open letter to you and Ryanair's policy on the cancellations as provided to you." The Ryanair call centre employee replied: "No I am not. Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

The airline said it had reminded its call centre staff on Wednesday about its formal policy, which states that passengers can be re-booked on another airline so long as the cost is not more than three times that of the original Ryanair fare.

Additional deadlines

The regulator has also imposed a further deadline on the airline to rectify the misleading information given to passengers during the past two weeks.

New emails must be sent to them giving "accurate and comprehensive information on their rights and options".

Ryanair must offer them again the option of a refund or re-routing, including one with another airline, and tell them how to make a claim for expenses.

Travellers who have accepted a refund must be offered a reimbursement of the difference with any higher fare.

And those who have been misled into accepting an unsatisfactory re-routing must be offered the option of changing it.

Passengers in the second group of cancellations, covering November to March, must have the option of being re-routed with another airline highlighted as an alternative Ryanair flight may not be available.

All the new emails must be sent out by 5pm on 4 October, after first being checked and approved by the CAA.

At FGW, Andrew Haines (a very competent MD) was preceded by the dire Alison Forster. Bad, good, bad for the last three MDs. If the cycle continues the next one should be an improvement over the current incumbant.  :P

If I remember rightly at the time, didn't Alison Forster let it be known she wasn't keen on taking over the local West services from Wessex Trains? It was the crazy decision to reduce the fleet size as recommended by a consultancy firm that was to be her downfall with the way it was all handled.

Hmmm, wasn't that consultancy firm in effect the DfT who specified and awarded a franchise based on service reductions, particularly on the branches and rural routes?  Andrew Haines did a good job in his short tenure in repairing some of that damage (Forster was pretty inexperienced and useless to be honest, and was shunted off to a much lower profile job at First Group!), but I would have been interested to see how he would have handled GWR's recent problems had he stayed on for a decent period.  Some might say that's a true test of a manager - it certainly is in football, just ask Ranieri!

He was at the OOC Open Day on 2nd September. Drooling over the cavalcade of his favourite loco, the Class 50. :D

Travellers who have accepted a refund must be offered a reimbursement of the difference with any higher fare.

And those who have been misled into accepting an unsatisfactory re-routing must be offered the option of changing it.

Oh how we cheered when Andrew Haines took over from Alison Forster who quickly sorted things out following the total balls up after the merging of the three rail companies into one. Shame his tenure as MD was but a short one.

If I remember rightly at the time, didn't Alison Forster let it be known she wasn't keen on taking over the local West services from Wessex Trains? It was the crazy decision to reduce the fleet size as recommended by a consultancy firm that was to be her downfall with the way it was all handled.

If I remember rightly at the time, didn't Alison Forster let it be known she wasn't keen on taking over the local West services from Wessex Trains?

More than that - she only wanted the High-Speed network & HSTs.....wasn't interested in anything else at all.

Times have indeed changed, the number of people wanting to travel has shot through the roof for starters, and that is only just starting to be properly addressed rather than the sticking plaster approach for the last ten years.

Yes of course.  And to be fair, current mini-crisis aside, crew availability has been pretty good over the last ten years since the 'Worst Great Western' and 'I Hate First Great Western' badge days when everything was in a right state.

For those that can remember - worse than currently? Discuss.

You also had campaign groups starting up in HSS and LTV sectors like Ox-Rail Action when the Oxford to London peak service capacity was reduced significantly.

It is an unsatisfactory rebooking, further away from my ultimate destination, but getting Ryanair to talk to the other airline to allow me to rebook (which might now be with a different airline at a higher fare!) will be very interesting, if nigh on impossible. I'd be interested in knowing the CAAs thoughts on how they go about it.

Ryanair have said they've briefed their staff to offer rebooking, but only up to 3-times the cost of the fare they refund. Not many other airlines offer £15 flights x 3 = £45 max!

I'm currently out of pocket by £21.01 & ending up further away from where I'm heading. Now awaiting communication from Ryanair to explain how I go about claiming this. Together with my Eur40 credit, I might just get another return flight out of them

Passengers hit by Ryanair cancellations are being offered discounted rail travel between Scotland and London.

Caledonian Sleeper is offering a 20% discount to passengers who have made a now-cancelled Ryanair booking until the end of February next year.

The budget airline announced this week it was axing 18,000 scheduled flights between November and March, with flights between Glasgow and Stansted and Edinburgh and Stansted among those affected.

The overnight train service said passengers can travel within a day of their original flight booking and use the code 'Ryanair' when booking online.

I guess your question is........"Ooooooooos gunna pay for it?" 😃

Ryanair backs down over passenger rights for cancellations

Ryanair has bowed to regulator demands and spelled out more options on offer to passengers affected by its planned flight disruption.

It has avoided possible legal action by emailing those affected by more than 20,000 flight cancellations.

On its site, Ryanair acknowledges it is required to offer those on cancelled flights full refunds or comparable tickets on rival carriers.

Civil Aviation Authority boss Andrew Haines said Ryanair had "capitulated".

Earlier this week, Mr Andrew Haines said he was "furious" the airline had not been complying with the law by failing to offer to re-route passengers on rival airlines.

In the airline's first wave of cancellations Ryanair offered affected passengers a £40 voucher per cancelled flight as a way to say sorry.

The budget airline said it had taken on more extra staff to process the expected increase in customer claims.

Ryanair was forced by the CAA to clarify that passengers affected who previously "may have chosen an option that was not suitable for them as a result of any misunderstanding of their EU261 rights" were entitled to change their mind, for example by opting for a flight on another airline instead of a refund.

If no Ryanair flight was available to get customers to their ticketed destination, customers can now opt for a comparable flight on Easyjet, Jet2, Vueling, Cityjet, Aer Lingus, Norwegian or Eurowings, the airline clarified.

Mr Haines confirmed Ryanair had contacted the aviation watchdog late on Friday afternoon and said; "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," Haines added.

Ryanair's Kenny Jacobs said: "We are committed to processing all such claims within 21 days of receipt and hope to have all such claims settled before the end of October."

Ryanair cancelled up to 50 flights a day through to the end of October, affecting 315,000 passengers.

It then cancelled another 18,000 flights between November and March, affecting the travel plans of another 400,000 passengers.

The disruption was brought about because of an error with pilot holiday rotas and Ryanair said cancelling flights would "eliminate all risk of further flight cancellations".

The budget airline said it has updated the Frequently Asked Questions section of its website to reflect all of these changes.

Another update, from the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41445663):

Utter screw up - but perhaps this early cancellation to restore a robustness to what's left is best overall for the passengers who were (or wanted) to book - a model for others who find themselves with an unfortunate lack of operational resource to consider?

If you're alluding to GWR, there are a number of important differences;

Totally agree - but that doesn't mean that there aren't lessons to be learned and thought given to the approach taken.  With an airline, the next flight is likely to be a very great deal later, whereas on many GWR services there's alternatives that'll knock you back just an hour ("just" is a poor word to use if you're late for an interview, of course).

Ryanair operate - they say - 600,000 flights a year - so 18,000 cancellations is just 3% - or 6% if they're over a six month period. Last Sunday, GWR cancelled 48 services (or had done by 07:00 that morning), 12 of which came from the 13 trains scheduled to call at Melksham - that's a 92% cancellation rate at that station, with no other operator or line providing any trains, and no alternative public bus service along the line of route on a Sunday.

If GWR were to say "Sundays until 3rd December, we will run the first two round trips and the last two round trips, cancelling the trips between", that's a 30% cancellation rate, and we could actually trust them to provide driver, train manager and train (not just promises to do their best), it would be marketable ... as would a similar action on two round trips in the middle of the day on Saturday.   We could even market loss of the 11:47 up and 12:47 back on Monday to Friday

At the very, very least, Hopwood should be apologising , explaining, and advising what is being done to address the problem.

So no mention of union issues with rostering in your conversations with high level folk, grahame?

There are many posts on other forums from staff at the Greater Western TOC saying the issues of rostering, route knowledge maintenance and 'links' are a primary cause of the staff availability problems. ASLEF and the TOC management apparently at odds over these issues.

So no mention of union issues with rostering in your conversations with high level folk, grahame?

There are many posts on other forums from staff at the Greater Western TOC saying the issues of rostering, route knowledge maintenance and 'links' are a primary cause of the staff availability problems. ASLEF and the TOC management apparently at odds over these issues.

The pool of pilots suddenly on the market may not be a quick fix Ryanair's problems though.

Monarch's fleet was mostly A320s. Ryanair's 737s.

Will Ryanair offer jobs to Monarch Captains and FOs when they'll need to train them on 737s and offer full contracts? I suspect Ryanair will stick with its own zero hour cadet training.

Correct - Monarch had only one B738. The rest of the fleet was Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft, so conversion training will be needed. That costs around €40,000.

There's also a fairly large fleet of Airbus aircraft just available to the market...no type ratings necessary!

They would be a nuisance in a mixed fleet though. Ryanair have 397 B737-800s, and one B737-700. They have an order for another 175 B737s, so will want to sort out their staffing issues quickly. That includes 110 B737 MAX 200s.

Ryanair aren't hanging about. They have booked hotel conference facilities near major British airports, from Wednesday onwards, inviting Monarch flight crew (both pointy end and cabin) to come along to seek possible employment.

It couldn't be timed better. Remarkably lucky some might say...I did wonder when this episode first started if there was a sniff of a hint of this situation being engineered/predicted to some degree or another and I still have that hunch after this news about Monarch.

So how long had they owned it? About 3 years?

Stumping up £165m is peanuts if you're hoping/expecting to sell it on for three times that. And they were acting just like a hedge fund - certainly not in for the long-haul

Only engineered in the sense that Monarch were competing in a highly competitive short haul market. They had lost a lot of business to areas where they had little competition - Turkey and Egypt - due to political instability. The weak pound also contributed. Their income was in sterling, but their expenditure was in dollars (lease fees and fuel) and euros (airport charges). A perfect storm.

Yes, Ryanair and other airlines will pick up additional business. Passengers. Assets. Slots. But that's not a conspiracy.

Monarch themselves had profited from the bankruptcy of other airlines throughout their history. British Eagle, Court Line, Laker Airways. Passenger air transport is a ruthless business.

Another failure by Hedge Funds who think they can make a (quick) buck but find they can't once they've picked it up.....always beware once the company you work for falls into a hedge funds hands.

There are some crazy price offerings from Ryanair already. I would take advantage if there was a gap in my dairy.

The CAA obviously thought there wasn't much likelihood of Monarch's survival - indeed they effectively jacked up their prices so much at the weekend that no sensible person would have booked with them since Friday which may have been part of the management of the situation. 

I think that's correct. Else there would have been a 24/48 hr period when passengers abroad were left in limbo.

The situation does appear to have been managed as effectively as it could have been given the circumstances. Maybe the person responsible could be seconded to GWR to help them sort out the tricky job of running all its services on a day to day basis.

The CAA held the key, monarchs operating licence was due to run out on 30th sept, and CAA were not renewing it due to financial standing. The CAA extended it by 24 hours. The cynic in me suspects that was so they could sort out relief flights.

Ryanair pilots to strike before Christmas

Ryanair passengers face disruption to their Christmas travel plans after pilots and crew announced industrial action in a bid to win union recognition and better conditions.

In Ireland, 79 pilots based in Dublin will strike for one day on 20 December.

The airline, which does not recognise unions, said they represented about 28% of its Dublin-based captains.

Meanwhile, Ryanair pilots and cabin crew in Italy plan to strike for four hours on 15 December.

The airline said last week it would "ignore" the Italian move, claiming staff rarely heeded calls to walk out.

Pilots based in Portugal and Germany also plan industrial action.

Cockpit, the German pilots' union, said its Ryanair members would strike for better pay and conditions if the airline refused to begin talks, but vowed not to disrupt flights over Christmas.

Ryanair said it would "not deal with or recognise" the German union "regardless of what action - if any - takes place".

Unions have long argued that their airline fails to offer pilots the same pay and conditions as its rivals.

Impact, the Irish pilots' union, said the dispute was "solely about winning independent representation for pilots in the company", said official Ashley Connolly.

The union warned of further strikes if Ryanair failed to reach agreement with its members.

"Ryanair will deal with any such disruptions if, or when they arise, and we apologise sincerely to customers for any upset or worry this threatened action... may cause," the company said.

It said the Dublin staff who planned to strike were a "small group of pilots who are working their notice and will shortly leave Ryanair, so they don't care how much upset they cause colleagues or customers".

Analysts at Goodbody said although there were deep divisions between pilots and Ryanair management, the "headlines are worse than the reality on the ground" they wrote in a note.

In September Ryanair said more than 2,000 flights would be cancelled this winter after it rearranged pilots' rosters to comply with new aviation rules.

Later that month it announced 18,000 further flights would be cancelled over the winter season, affecting more than 700,000 passengers.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary wrote to its 4,200 pilots to apologise for the changes to their rotas and urged them not to leave the airline.

However, this week it warned Dublin pilots they would lose agreed benefits by striking.

Many of the airline's pilots have joined unions following the cancellations, but Ryanair said it could legally decline to negotiate with them.

Ryanair pilots in Ireland suspend strike plans

Ryanair pilots have suspended a pre-Christmas one-day strike, union bosses have announced.

The Impact union, which represents Irish-based pilots, has agreed to meet Ryanair's management on Tuesday ahead of the planned action on Wednesday.

It follows Ryanair's decision on Friday to recognise unions, in a bid to avert strikes across its European operations.

Unions in other countries had already halted action, but Impact said Irish pilots wanted more clarification.

In a statement on Sunday, the union said: "Impact has this evening suspended a planned one-day strike of Ryanair pilots next Wednesday after company management agreed to recognise the union as the representative of Irish-based pilots. The union has agreed to meet management on Tuesday evening, but says it is available to meet sooner.

"The union asked management to release its Ryanair pilot representatives to prepare for and attend the meeting. The union acknowledged the principled determination of Ryanair pilots."

The airline has offered to recognise trade unions for the first time after pilots in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal threatened walkouts.

Ryanair said on Saturday that it would meet the German pilots' union for talks on Wednesday.

The airline's chief operations officer, Peter Bellew, confirmed the planned meetings in a social media post on Saturday, saying "let's keep talking".

The Dublin-based airline announced on Friday that it would recognise the unions "as long as they establish committees of Ryanair pilots... as Ryanair will not engage with pilots who fly for competitor airlines".

It is the first time Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has extended such an invitation to union leaders in the 32 years the company has been flying.

Britain's Balpa union said on Saturday said it had accepted Ryanair's offer to represent British-based pilots, but only if the TUC federation of British trade unions was allowed to attend future talks.

Friday's announcement led to Italian pilots' union Anpac and Portuguese union Spac calling off strike action due to take place next week.

Pilots in Germany had voted to take industrial action some time during the Christmas period.

German union Vereinigung Cockpit said the onus was now on Ryanair to "prove that this announcement is serious".

In Spain, there are no strikes planned for pilots but ground staff unions have not ruled out action on 30 December.

In October, Mr O'Leary wrote to his airline's pilots to offer them better pay and conditions after Ryanair was forced to cancel thousands of flights.

The carrier admitted it had "messed up" the planning of its pilots' holidays.