BREAKING: Beleaguered Ryanair announce yet MORE flight cancellations

There is yet more mayhem in the pipeline for Ryanair passengers: the airline has announced that flight cancellations have been extended.

Disruption to usual services will now go on right up until mid-March. The Dublin-based carrier is grounding 25 of its 400 aircraft from November and reducing its flight schedule. https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/913016222094159872 It is believed that Wednesday's announcement will impact on some 400,000 travellers and 18,000 flights. In a press release, Ryanair insisted however some of the November-March cancelled flights currently have zero reservations. Commenting on Wednesday on the matter, CEO Michael O’Leary furthermore stressed that "99 percent of our 129m customers will not have been affected by any cancellations or disruptions". Previously, Ryanair has explained it has had to reduce its schedule because of annual leave owed to pilots and cabin crew. An earlier statement read: "Ryanair has operated at record schedule and traffic levels during the peak summer months... but has a backlog of crew leave which must be allocated before December 31 2017." It continued: “Ryanair apologises sincerely for the inconvenience caused to customers by these cancellations." All affected customers are expected to be contacted directly via email and are due to offered alternative flights or a full refund.