Ryanair says it has re-accommodated over 175,000 customers of the 315,000 customers affected by the cancellation of 2,100 flights over the next six weeks.

The airline says all 315,000 customers received email notices on Monday Sept. 18 advising them of their flight changes and offering alternative flights, refunds and EU261 notices.

By close of business on Wed. 20, the airline expects that in excess of 63,000 flight refunds will have been processed. Ryanair said it also expects to have processed over 300,000 alternative routings or refunds for customers (over 95% of affected customers) by the end of this week.

On Monday the airline published the full list of flight cancellations up to Saturday 28th October . The airports where one line of flying will be removed for the next six weeks are as follows:

Barcelona    1 of 12 lines of flights
Brussels Charleroi  1 of 13 lines of flights
Dublin 1 of 23 lines of flights
Lisbon  1 of 4 lines of flights
London Stansted  2 of 41 lines of flights
Madrid  1 of 13 lines of flights
Milan Bergamo  1 of 14 lines of flights
Porto  1 of 8 lines of flights
Rome Fiumicino  1 of 3 lines of flights

Chief executive Michael O’Leary said:  “This is a mess of our own making. I apologise sincerely to all our customers for any worry or concern this has caused them over the past weekend. We have only taken this decision to cancel this small proportion of our 2,500 daily flights so that we can provide extra standby cover and protect the punctuality of the 98% of flights that will be unaffected by these cancellations.”

Share Price

Ryanair’s share price was marked down sharply on Monday after the airline announced last Friday that it is cancelling 40 to 50 flights daily for the next six weeks. The cancellation policy was implemented without warning, leaving thousands of intending passengers stranded at airports. The airline blamed its shocking behaviour on staff roster issues.

• Ryanair cancellations to October 28 

The Ryanair share was sold down to €16.54 on the Irish Stock Exchange on Monday morning before recovering to the €17 level. On Wednesday the price had drifted down to €16.50 again, where the market cap is over €3 billion less than a month ago.

Demand for the stock has been propped up by the ongoing €600m share buyback programme announced in May 2017, with the company spending €85m through the first two weeks of September to buy and cancel shares. The share briefly broke through the €19 level in mid-August.

• Ryanair share price today on the Irish Stock Exchange

The share has enjoyed strong support from investors through 2017, starting the year at the €14 level and advancing steadily to around €18.50 mark in mid-July before running into resistance. The buyback programme underpinned the price through August at around €18. Last June the airline guided earnings per share of €1.13 for the financial year to end March 2018.

Mons Ruling

Investor sentiment towards Ryanair has also been impacted by a ruling from the European Court of Justice on September 14 relating to cabin crew based at Charleroi airport in Belgium. At issue was the legal jurisdiction status of staff employment contracts.

The ECJ stated that the place where a cabin crew’s aircraft is stationed should be taken into account when determining which court had jurisdiction. Pilot and cabin representatives welcomed the ruling on the basis that cabin crews in Europe can derive their rights and applicable law from their home base.

Ryanair HR director Eddie Wilson countered: “We do not believe this ‘Mons’ ruling will in any way alter our Irish contracts of employment or the union rights which all of our people enjoy under the protection of the Irish Constitution.” However, some equity analysts have speculated that the ruling could add up to €100m to Ryanair’s staff overhead in 2019.

Customer volume increased by 10% year-on-year through August and the load factor was 97%. System-wide punctuality fell below 80% in the first two weeks of September. Ryanair blamed a combination of ATC capacity delays and strikes, weather disruptions and the impact of increased holiday allocations to pilots and cabin crew.

Under EU compensation rules for cancelled flights, if the disruption is within an airline’s control the carrier has to offer full refunds, paid within seven days, or rebookings for a flight cancelled at short notice. In addition, passengers can also claim compensation of €250 for short-haul and €440 for medium-haul.