Ms Patricia Barton:

In terms of dealing with the initial obligation to inform and engage with passengers affected by these disruptions, Ryanair has taken on additional staff and actively ramped up resources in the call centres. It temporarily extended the telephone hours and had a dedicated live chat for re-routing. It has also been tick-tacking with us in terms of the information it is distributing. On a practical level, we are happy with the resources it has put into this for now.

In terms of Ryanair's application of the regulation generally, there are multiple layers to that question. Looking at it holistically, given the number of flights Ryanair operates and the number of passengers it carries, it actually yields a very small number of complaints under Regulation (EC) 261/2004. There is an inference there that, by and large, it is vindicating passenger rights under this regulation. However, as Ms Mannion mentioned, it does come back to language. Its language is different. As a regulator, we take the approach that once the message conveyed and rights established by the regulation are respected in whatever Ryanair says, we are not so bothered about the tone as such. Nonetheless, it is causing an element of confusion with the public. The language can seem a little more terse than it actually is. Ryanair is very much open to engagement with us on that. As Ms Mannion mentioned, it went through the wording of the emails with us and we discussed it at length and reached a resolution whereby we were very happy with the information it was putting out.

In terms of co-operation with Ryanair generally, we have always found it to be very good in its complaint handling. That is the aspect of Ryanair we would most often see. Looking at our annual report, Ryanair's complaint numbers per million passengers are quite low compared with other air carriers. As with everything, there is always room for improvement and it is our job as a regulator to make sure we work with them and, if necessary, take enforcement action to make sure it is always a best practice situation in order that passengers get the best possible service.