Ryanair bosses and shareholders set to clash at AGM
Ryanair bosses and shareholders will come head to head today as the airline holds its AGM in the midst of warnings of a multi-million compensation bill for cancelled flights.
The meeting takes place at the company's Dublin headquarters after it revealed it was shelving up to 50 flights everyday over the next six weeks.
The airline said the cancellations were brought about by the over-allocation of pilots' holidays during a relatively busy period.
And Ryanair faces a bill of up to €20m for passengers left stranded and forced to re-book.
But passengers have been reporting problems with the process of refunds and compensation for cancelled flights, saying information supplied by the airline is incorrect and calls are going unanswered.
Angry customers inundated Ryanair's Facebook page and many are also complaining their calls and messages through the airline's call centre and online "chat" service are going unanswered or being cut off.
The airline said it was aware of the issue and any customers who were double-charged for seats or hold luggage will be refunded.
While the AGM was planned to go through run-of-the-mill corporate governance on accounts, executive pay, election of directors and share purchases, the meeting is also expected to feature questions over the handling of the crisis.
Chief executive Michael O'Leary will be in attendance.
He has accepted the debacle had a "large reputational impact" on the airline and apologised.
Ryanair said all 315,000 customers affected by the cancellations received an email on Monday advising them of their flight changes and offering alternative flights, refunds and EU261 notices.
The airline said it expected to have re-accommodated more than 175,000 customers on other Ryanair flights and to have processed refunds for more than 20% of those affected by close of business yesterday.
