Ryanair published the full list of cancellations - that it said was now less than 50 flights per day - and said where possible, they had been allocated to its bigger base airports where it could offer disrupted customers the maximum number of alternative flights.

"This issue will not recur in 2018 as Ryanair goes back onto a 12-month calendar leave. Ryanair is not short of pilots - we were able to fully crew our peak summer schedule," O'Leary told a news conference, adding that the disruption was a "mess of our own making."

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by Alexander Smith)