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Hardly any money back: The Ryanair case reveals the airlines’ cancellation strategy

economy Hardly any money back

The Ryanair case reveals the airlines’ cancellation strategy

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As of: 5:34 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes

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Ryanair wants to take off again

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Ryanair is restarting flight operations. From July, almost 1,000 flights are scheduled to take place every day. This covers 90 percent of the routes that the airline had operated before the Corona crisis.

The pandemic has had numerous flights canceled for more than two months. Despite the clear legal situation, many customers are still waiting for the costs to be paid back. According to British consumer advocates, an airline does particularly poorly.

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Ethe British consumer protection organization Which! the low-cost airline Ryanair. According to their research, just five percent of customers got their money back within the legally required seven days after canceling the flight. 84 percent of those questioned are still waiting for their money many weeks after the corona-related flight cancellations.

This puts the Irish airline in a worse position than all its competitors. But more than half of Easyjet customers are still waiting for a refund of the ticket price: 64 percent in Great Britain.

The problem is not limited to the British Isles. In Germany too, customers complain that they have been waiting for a refund for weeks. They vent their anger on social media. Last week, the passenger portal Flightright, on behalf of 20,000 people, began to take legal action to claim reimbursements from Ryanair and Lufthansa.

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The legal situation is clear, however, emphasize lawyers. If passengers want to get their money back on a canceled flight, the airlines must reimburse the ticket costs within seven days.

There are no exceptions or mitigating circumstances for the EU regulation. In view of the extraordinary situation and the practically complete cessation of flight operations, many airlines have tried to persuade customers to make free changes or vouchers.

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary continues to woo customers for understanding that the company has been overwhelmed by the mass of reimbursement claims. The applications had increased by a factor of 10,000 because of the extensive cessation of flight operations since mid-March. “It will take weeks and months to clear the backlog.” The money was safe with Ryanair, O’Leary added, considering the company’s cash position.

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Which! also criticize the airline’s contradicting instructions. “Ryanair has made it difficult for customers to apply for a refund because they have multiple hurdles.”

An initially recommended online form did not work. Customers who asked for a refund were sent vouchers for a later trip. Others received the pledge for money, which would only be paid after the pandemic ended.

Ryanair has recently seen a “big wave” of bookings

The example of British Airways shows that this delay tactic does not have to be. At first, the company was not particularly customer-friendly either. Refund claims are only possible by telephone.

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However, 77 percent of customers have now received their money. In the Jet2 holiday plane, it is even 81 percent. In addition, two-fifths of all British Airways customers complied with the statutory reimbursement period of seven days.

However, customers’ annoyance about having to wait for their money doesn’t seem to have any long-term impact on booking behavior. The company has had a “big wave” of bookings in the past few days, O’Leary told Reuters, especially about vacation destinations in Spain, Portugal and Italy. According to current calculations, the 1,000 daily flights that Ryanair will offer again in July are likely to be 50 to 60 percent full.

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