Anyway do you have anything to say about Ryanair? Is this a step too far, or will people stay with them?
I suspect Ryanair have misjudged this badly.
The starting point issue of pilots would have increased costs and therefore made some currently marginally profitable routes unprofitable. I think Ryanair calculated that by cutting some routes, presumably the least profitable, they might actually cut losses. The thinking being that they'd scrap a route that would otherwise now be losing money and all they'd have to give back was the cost the customer paid to Ryanair.
What they clearly seemed to have failed to understand is that their obligation goes beyond giving money back, but to booking customers onto alternative flights, likely to be with other providers and at much greater cost. That is going to be extremely costly and I hope passengers hold firm in demanding their legal right to be booked on an alternative flight.
There will now also be reputation all damage, meaning less bookings, which will make further flights unprofitable potentially leading to a kind of chain reaction.
I wouldn't be surprised if we see the whole company collapsing as their business model is based in flights being effectively full as the first block of tickets see sold at a loss only the last few generate the profit.
