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Stop rabbiting on about refunds, says Michael O’Leary
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has clashed with a BBC radio presenter who said customers have been in touch to say they are still awaiting refunds over cancelled flights.
He told Five Live Breakfast presenter Rachel Burden that claims people haven’t yet been reimbursed were ‘completely false’, ‘part of a BBC bias’ and ‘hearsay’.
At one point, the presenter asked him why he was getting so irate and O’Leary told her to ‘stop rabbing on about refunds’.
Earlier, the Ryanair boss told Radio 4’s Today programme that passengers won’t be entitled to a refund if their trip is affected by the new travel ban, but they can change their flight for free.
O’Leary told Five Live: "We have now refunded – between refunds and vouchers – 1.5 billion in cash in the last six months. We have no customers outstanding who have requested a refund who haven’t received it."
"We have refunded all of our people and we have no backlog in our refunds department. That is a fact."
After asking the presenter to move on so they could talk about other things, Burden said "We tend to be driven by what our listeners would like us to talk about. When you mention Ryanair, this is what we get texts and communication on."
"You keep reading these untrue emails, which only you have access to. The emails you are reading are factually incorrect. Can you please stop reading false tweets and we will move on."
"There’s a tiny number of refunds outstanding who booked through screen-scraper websites where we have fake customer details or fake credit card details and we have even provided a facility for those customers to apply directly to us.
"Stop rabbiting on about refunds when they’ve already been refunded."
Burden asked O’Leary "Why do you get so irate?"
He replied: "We hired extra staff, we worked day in, day out, 24 hours a day. Our refunds process is the best in the industry. If you apply for a refund today you will get it in the next three-four days."
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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