Ryanair has cancelled 190 of its 2,400 scheduled flights on Friday 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.

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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.

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The long-running industrial action by Ryanair staff centres on working conditions. Staff based in countries other than Ireland are unhappy that Ryanair has been employing them under Irish legislation.

Employees say they are compelled to receive their pay in Irish bank accounts, which affects their credit rating at home. Ryanair said it has agreed to move to local contracts, law and taxation as quickly as possible next year, but with conditions attached.

Ryanair said in a statement: “Ryanair sincerely regrets these unnecessary customer disruptions, which have been called by unions at the behest of competitor airline employees.

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.”

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During the summer, the airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, threatened to move jobs to Poland because of the strikes. He warned: “If we have people who just want to have strikes for the sake of having strikes then they can have strikes and they’ll find themselves [with] jobs getting moved.”

Rory Boland, the Which? travel editor, called on Ryanair to save its customers holidays. “The airline must now immediately arrange alternative flights or provide a full refund and pay out compensation to those affected – including the many people still waiting for the money they’re owed from its shambolic summer of cancellations”

Anyone who has booked a Ryanair flight on Friday 28 September was advised to check their inbox and mobile phone to see if their flight is among those cancelled. Normally the airline posts a list of affected flights on its website, but by Tuesday evening had failed to do so.



