Ryanair has cancelled 190 of its 2,400 scheduled flights on Friday (28 Sept. 2018) blaming strikes by cabin crew based in Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy and Germany.

The Irish airline, which has already suffered a summer of disruption, declined to reveal exactly which flights had been cancelled – which account for 8% of all its flights on Friday – but said all 30,000 affected passengers had been notified by text and email. The cancellations, however, do include flights into and out of the UK.

Ryanair said it “sincerely regrets these unnecessary customer disruptions”, which it blamed on agitation from staff at rival airlines.

Friday’s action will further damage the airline’s reputation in the eyes of the travelling public, who have been wary of making future Ryanair bookings because of the threat of industrial action.

In August, the low-cost carrier was forced to cancel nearly 400 flights as it battled unions in Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands. About 50,000 passengers had their travel plans disrupted, leaving a trail of unusable hotel, car hire and other bookings. There was similar disruption in July.

The airline’s Kenny Jacobs said: “These repeated unnecessary strikes are damaging Ryanair’s business and our customer confidence at a time when oil prices are rising strongly, and if they continue, it is inevitable that we will have to look again at our capacity growth this winter and in summer 2019. We hope these unions will see common sense.”

Source: Ryanair