Ryanair denies cancellation of Boxing Day flight

Low-cost airline Ryanair has clarified that contrary to reports in the local media it did not cancel a flight on Boxing Day.

Ryanair's head of communications Peter Sherrard told The Sunday Times yesterday that no flight for that day was listed on the airline's Website and, as such, no bookings were made.

Last Wednesday, a Maltese-language newspaper reported that Ryanair had cancelled its December 26 flight to Malta and that irate passengers who had turned up at Malta International Airport were forced to make alternative travel arrangements.

When contacted by The Times last Wednesday, Philip Lingard, who has acted as the intermediary between the airline and the government, confirmed a flight had been cancelled because too few bookings had been made, although he added that he was not aware of any passengers turning up at the airport as they had been informed of the situation by e-mail.

However, when contacted yesterday Mr Lingard said he had now seen Ryanair's scheduling programme and no flight was in fact listed for that day. He added: "Please contact Ryanair themselves to get the full answer."

The airline said in a statement that "no flight was ever scheduled to operate or was ever put on sale from Malta to London Luton on December 24, 25 and 26. Therefore the reports of a flight cancellation on Boxing Day are without foundation".

And Mr Sherrard added: "We saw the report on Google news... and I was wondering what it was. We checked it out and there were actually no flights in the first place."

Mr Sherrard said all the flights to and from Malta were loaded on the same day last September.

"There were no flights scheduled to operate on those days and that would have been communicated to the airport. Nobody paid for a flight," he said.