Dutch passengers furious as Ryanair cancels hundreds of flights

Photo: Ryanair.com

The decision by Irish budget airline Ryanair to cancel hundreds of flights to ‘improve punctuality’ is having an impact on people using the airline from the Netherlands.

Flights from both Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and Weeze in Germany, which is popular with Dutch travellers, have been scrapped, leaving hundreds of people stranded or unable to go on holiday.

Ryanair also serves 15 destinations from Eindhoven airport and Italy and Spain from Maastricht. Flights from Charleroi, south of Brussels, which is also used by Dutch travellers, have also been cancelled.

The airline said its is cancelling 40 to 50 flights every day for the next six weeks, in a bid to improve punctuality. Announcing the plan on Friday, Ryanair said it is ‘unacceptable’ that fewer than 80% of planes were arriving on time in the first half of September.

It also said it had to clear a backlog of staff leave by the end of the year.

One hour

One man, named by RTL Nieuws as Martijn, said his parents-in-law were actually at Weeze airport on Friday when they were told the flight would not go ahead. ‘They heard their flight to Alicante was being cancelled an hour before it was due to leave,’ Martijn said by phone from Spain.

The list of cancelled flights at the weekend included trips between Dublin and Schiphol and from Weeze to Bologna.

Jack van Aerts was alerted by email that his flight to Alicante would not go ahead. ‘We tried to contact Ryanair but could reach no-one,’ he told RTL. ‘It was unclear if just the flight out was affected. In the end we booked two flights with Transavia, but it cost us a few hundred euros.’

Alexander Sarton has also been told his Tuesday flight from Eindhoven to Bologna will not go ahead. ‘You can rebook via Ryanair but for two days later. If you’ve only got five days holiday, that does not leave much,’ he told RTL.

Have you been affected by the Ryanair cancellations? Email editor@dutchnews.nl or leave a comment below.

Thank you for donating to DutchNews.nl.

We could not provide the Dutch News service, and keep it free of charge, without the generous support of our readers. Your donations allow us to report on issues you tell us matter, and provide you with a summary of the most important Dutch news each day.

Make a donation