Ryanair cancels 600 flights ahead of strikes in 3 countries

The Ireland-headquartered Ryanair on Wednesday announced that it has cancelled 600 flights flying to and from Spain, Portugal and Belgium due to the strikes planned by some of its cabin crew in the three European countries later this month.

The flights cancelled are scheduled on Wednesday July 25 and Thursday July 26, said the airline in a statement, adding that the cancellations have affected a total of 50,000 travellers, accounting for 12 percent of the total traffic to be handled by the airline during the two days.

The airline has notified the affected customers about the cancellations of their flights earlier on Wednesday, it said, adding that the customers affected can either choose to seek a full refund of their airfares or take alternative flights available seven days prior to or after the two days of the strikes, it said.

According to Ryanair, the 600 flights cancelled include 400 flights to and from Spain, 100 flights to and from Portugal and another 100 to and from Belgium.

"Ryanair sincerely apologizes to our customers for these disruptions which we have done our utmost to avoid," said Kenny Jacobs, Chief Marketing Officer of Ryanair.

Given that Ryanair cabin crew enjoy great pay, industry leading rosters, great sales commissions, uniform allowances and sick pay, these strikes are entirely unjustified and will achieve nothing other than to disrupt family holidays, and benefit competitor airlines in Belgium, Portugal and Spain, he said.

Along with the statement, Ryanair also posted a detailed list of the benefits for its cabin crew in Europe, in which it says that Ryanair cabin crew earn up to 40,000 euros per annum, more than double the "living" wage, and enjoy 14 days off each month.

Ryanair said that it has already engaged in extensive negotiations with national cabin crew unions across Europe and has already concluded union recognition agreements in Britain and Italy.

Apart from the above-mentioned strikes, Ryanair is also facing strikes by some of its pilots based in Ireland. On Tuesday, the airline said that it had cancelled 24 flights travelling between Ireland and Britain due to the planned strike by its pilots on Friday July 20. Prior to this, the same group of Ryanair pilots had staged a 24-hour strike on last Thursday, which led to cancellations of 30 flights, affecting nearly 5,000 customers, said Ryanair.