Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) will cancel almost 2,000 flights through the end of the current summer season as part of what it says, is an effort to improve its record of on-time flights.
The Irish LCC said in a statement that the cancellations, which began last week, are aimed at improving "its system-wide punctuality which has fallen below 80% in the first two weeks of September,” a number it called "unacceptable".
"By reducing its scheduled flying programme over the next six weeks by less than 2% (of its over 2,500 daily flights), the airline will create additional standby aircraft which will help restore on-time performance to its 90% average," Ryanair spokesman Robin Kiely said.
Ryanair blamed the increased number of delays on a combination of ATC capacity delays and strikes, weather disruptions, and the impact of increased holiday allocations to pilots and cabin crew following a change to its roster in line with the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) regulations.
Ryanair reached an agreement with the IAA and the European Air Safety Agency (EASA) in 2016 in which it agreed to adhere to EASA standards whereby the operational year starts on January 1 and ends on December 31. Prior to the agreement, Ryanair had operated according to an April 1-March 31 calender. As a consequence of the transition, the LCC is now dealing with a backlog of crew leave which must be allocated before December 31, 2017, in order to switch to a calendar leave year (as required by the IAA) from January 1, 2018.
