According to the low cost airline, the decision was made after it was left short of pilots having granted them leave over the next six weeks.
The affected flights in Portugal will see 62 flights cancelled to Porto, 38 in Lisbon and a further six in Faro.
The full list of these flight cancellations (from 21 September to 31 October) are currently available on the ryanair.com website, and customers affected by these cancellations will be emailed with offers of alternative flights or full refunds, and details of their EU261 compensation entitlement, the airline said.
Ryanair explained the majority of passengers will be offered alternative flights on the same or next day.
Those passengers who cannot, or do not wish to take the alternative flights offered will receive a full refund and their EU261 compensation.
Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary explained in a statement sent to The Portugal News that “Ryanair is not short of pilots – we were able to fully crew our peak summer schedule in June, July and August – but we have messed up the allocation of annual leave to pilots in September and October because we are trying to allocate a full year’s leave into a 9 month period from April to December. This issue will not recur in 2018 as Ryanair goes back onto a 12 month calendar leave year from 1 January to 31 December 2018.
“This is a mess of our own making. I apologise sincerely to all our customers for any worry or concern this has caused them over the past weekend. We have only taken this decision to cancel this small proportion of our 2,500 daily flights so that we can provide extra standby cover and protect the punctuality of the 98 percent of flights that will be unaffected by these cancellations.”
In the meantime, consumer rights organisation DECO said that passengers affected by the cancellations here in Portugal could receive compensation of up to 400 euros.
Initial estimates have already pointed to the company suffering losses in the region of 20 million euros, with the airline as yet not revealing how it aims to recover the loss in revenue.