Ryanair under fire after hundreds of compensation cheques bounce due to blank signature

The airline has apologised for the administrative error

Hundreds of thousands of Ryanair passengers had their flights cancelled this summer (REUTERS)

Nearly 200 Ryanair customers were unable to cash in compensation cheques in July as they were sent out unsigned.

Some 190 people were affected by the error, which in some cases saw passengers charged by their bank for returning the invalid cheque.

A spokesperson for the budget airline said: “Due to an admin error, a tiny number of cheques (less than 190 out of over 20,000 compensation cheques in July) were posted without a required signatory.

“These cheques were re-issued last week and we apologise sincerely for this inconvenience which arose out of our desire to issue these compensation cheques quickly to our customers.”

Karen Joyce, 50, said that after waiting 11 months for compensation, her bank had added a fee of 20 euros (£18) because the cheque wasn’t signed.

“I was totally dumbstruck,” she told the BBC. “We were loyal Ryanair customers and for them to bounce the cheque as well I just thought was disgusting.”

Mrs Joyce said she had spent 20 minutes on the phone to a Ryanair customer service representative after discovering the error.

“Then he just put the phone down,” she said. “I have not received anything from Ryanair.”

This summer, hundreds of thousands of Ryanair passengers had their flights cancelled, mainly due to a series of strikes by pilots and cabin crew.

The airline is currently in dispute with pilots in five countries – Ireland, Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany.

Pilots from all but the Netherlands staged a coordinated 24-hour walkout on Friday 10 August in what was the biggest day of industrial action in the airline’s history. Some 400 flights were cancelled, affecting more than 70,000 passengers, as a result.