To avoid possible legal action and meet the demands laid out by the regulator Ryanair has options on offering its passengers affected by planned flight disruption to compensate them by paying for their hotel fees, amongst other forced costs that it caused.
During the budget airline's wave of cancellations it offered affected passengers a £40 voucher per cancelled flight as a way to say sorry.
Ryanair was forced by the CAA to clarify that passengers affected who previously "may have chosen an option that was not suitable for them as a result of any misunderstanding of their EU261 rights" were entitled to change their mind, for example by opting for a flight on another airline instead of a refund.
Ryanair said it had taken on more extra staff to process the expected increase in customer claims. The Civil Aviation Authority said Ryanair had "capitulated."
CAA boss Andrew Haines said that he was "furious" the airline had not been complying with the law by failing to offer to re-route passengers on rival airlines.
He confirmed that Ryanair had contacted the aviation watchdog and said; "Our job is to protect passengers' rights and ensure that all airlines operating in the UK are fully compliant with important consumer laws.”
If no Ryanair flight was available to get customers to their ticketed destination, customers can now opt for a comparable flight on Easyjet, Jet2, Vueling, Cityjet, Aer Lingus, Norwegian or Eurowings, the airline clarified.
Ryanair's Kenny Jacobs said: "We are committed to processing all such claims within 21 days of receipt and hope to have all such claims settled before the end of October."
Ryanair cancelled up to 50 flights a day through to the end of October, affecting 315,000 passengers.
