Ryanair faces a compensation bill of up to €20m for the flight cancellations 'mess' which has left many passengers stranded, the airline's boss Michael O'Leary said.
The Dublin-based carrier is shelving up to 50 flights daily over the next six weeks due to a pilot shortage.
Mr O'Leary, the airline's chief executive, told a press conference: "Clearly there's a large reputational impact for which again I apologise. We will try to do better in future.
"In terms of lost profitability we think it will cost us something of the order of up to about €5m over the next six weeks and in terms of the EU261 compensation we think that will be something up to a maximum of €20m, but much depends on how many of the alternative flights our customers take up."