Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary recently clashed with a BBC radio presenter who said customers have been in touch to say they are still awaiting refunds over cancelled flights telling her to “stop rabbiting on about refunds”.
The Ryanair chief 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.
He also 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” before requesting that she “stop rabbiting on about refunds”.
Mr O’Leary said: “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.”
When pushed to respond to emails the show had received from disgruntled customers, Mr O’Leary said: “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.”
