Ryanair, the budget airline we love to hate, and hate to end up booking our holidays with when we end up penned in a tiny stuffy space to wait at the gate for a plane that’s delayed by an hour and then two more once you’re on the plane and they’re not serving food anymore and you see the sun set over the tarmac and not the harbourside bar you were meant to be padding up and down that evening instead of sweating stiffly in a high-backed chair looking at a fluorescent yellow guide to the food which you may no longer eat…is in some trouble.
The low-cost airline could face legal action from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) after cancelling thousands of flights, and, the body claims ‘misleading passengers’ over their rights, reports The Guardian. Ryanair, which pretty much sells holidays, or at least bookends them with misery, seemingly forgot to properly organise the holiday rosters of its own pilots. The company admitted ‘messing up’ these plans, and therefore had to cancel 34 routes, affecting 400,000 passengers booked onto flights from November 2017 to March 2018.
WATCH NOW: Choosing Change: Meet The Women Fighting For Abortion Rights In Northern Ireland
Under EU law, if a plane journey is cancelled, the airline has 24 hours after informing passengers of the cancellation to book them onto an alternative flight. If the flight is at a time that doesn’t work for the passenger, the airline has a duty to re-book them onto another airline doing the same route. Find out more about your rights here.
However, Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary last week told passengers that it wasn’t Ryanair’s job to book new flights for passengers. And then, after a new batch of flights were cancelled, the airline insisted it wasn’t their job to book passengers onto flights provided by other airlines.
Ryanair now says it will cooperate with the CAA, releasing a short statement to say: ‘We already comply fully with all EU261 legislation, are meeting with the CAA and will comply fully with whatever requirements they ask us to.’
Passengers were initially offered refunds of two £40 singles or one £80 return.
In the melée, there has been a rumour going around - this Irish plane service is stopping women from getting abortions. According to Need Abortion Ireland, a Facebook page that seemingly has its heart in the right place, Ryanair’s cancellations would affect women who, due to draconian laws in their home country, have to travel to access rights over their own bodies.
The account posted the following:
And it got over a hundred shares, and was screengrabbed and posted on Twitter.
However, Mara Clarke, director of Abortion Support Network, pointed out to The Debrief that none of the routes affected are from any part of Ireland to ‘Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol or London’ and very few of the routes are early in the morning, returning later at night (the typical time a woman seeking an abortion will travel).
She added: ‘But also even if these flights were impacted, a cancelled flight is just one of many, many obstacles Irish women have to overcome to access abortion services in England.
‘Abortion Support Network helped clients access abortions during the Icelandic volcano when there were zero flights, and many of our clients can’t fly Ryanair in the first place as Ryanair will only accept a passport as ID. Is it a pain? Yes. But hardly a blip for us.’
‘The fear of having your flight cancelled for no reason/without notice is an added stress for people, of course it is! But we’ve not heard of any of our clients being impacted.’
The lesson? Ryanair should do a lot of things to make things right with their passengers and staff. But an airline shouldn’t have to be the conduit by which women, in 2017, gain access to a safe and legal abortion. That role is for the Irish government, and the slated 2018 referendum on women’s right to abortion, which 73% of Irish citizens agree should be legalised at least up until 12 weeks’ gestation, couldn’t come any sooner.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.