Due to the sheer scale of this comment community, we are not able to give each post the same level of attention, but we have preserved this area in the interests of open debate. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante RAFAEL MARCHANTEPeople queue at the Ryanair airline customer service desk during the first of two days cabin crew strikeRyanair personnel stand at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, during a strike of cabin personnel Ryanair's customer service department gather behind a banner reading: 'Ryanair On Strike - Respect Us! The airline says it will make another announcement by Friday 21 September.More than two million passengers are booked to fly with Ryanair on those four strike days, but a large majority of them are not on aircraft planned to be flown by UK pilots.Many Ryanair services to and from the UK are operated by flight crew based abroad, and should be unaffected – unless for some reason pilots were transferred to cover for striking British employees. No. A planned strike by Irish pilots, which would have made it far harder for Ryanair to cope with the Balpa walkout, was stopped by an injunction granted by courts in Ireland.Ryanair said: “We call on Balpa to return to talks to resolve any issues of genuine concern for our UK pilots, where Balpa’s strikes have totally failed.”Ryanair has described the pilot strikes as ‘pointless and failed’.Ryanair has described the pilot strikes as ‘pointless and failed’. So passengers may find that the crew are onboard for safety reasons but they do not offer any inflight sales. At this point cancelling for a refund would be unwise, because is absolves the airline of making alternative arrangements for your travel.Under European air passengers’ rights rules, if Ryanair cancels your departure, you must find you a flight as soon as possible – including on another airline if necessary.Unless it can put you on another Ryanair flight at a very similar time to a different carrier, it must pay for a new ticket on British Airways, easyJet, Jet2 etc.Ryanair must also meet attendant expenses, such as transport from Stansted to Gatwick or Heathrow to take a flight on easyJet or British Airways respectively.The Irish airline says UK flights will operate normally on Wednesday, Thursday and SatudayIndependent Premium Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Premium. But because of the odd pattern of strikes, there may be a possibility that operations on 24, 26 and 28 could be affected. Ahead of previous strikes, Ryanair has informed passengers on flights that it has decided to cancel two or three days ahead. For the first two days of the stoppage the airline says there will be no cancellations: “Ryanair expects all its flights to/from UK airports on Weds 18 and Thurs 19 [September] to operate as scheduled.” It praises “the efforts of over 95 per cent of our UK pilots who have confirmed that they will work their rosters, and will not support these failed Balpa strikes”.The thinking behind the apparently odd timing is that it will play havoc with Ryanair’s rostering patterns, and the airline will find itself with insufficient pilots with flying hours to spare to cover all the flights.Ahead of previous strikes, Ryanair has informed passengers on flights that it has decided to cancel two or three days ahead. Any disruption, though, is likely to be minimal.Far more pilots at BA belong to Balpa – around nine out of 10 – with three-quarters of all the airline’s pilots voting for, and presumably supporting, the walk-out.Secondly, Ryanair has only one kind of aircraft, the Boeing 737-800, which means any pilot can fly all planes in the fleet. Therefore organising cover for flights is far trickier.Lastly, the British Airways operation is far more complicated, with many long-haul services as well as European night stops.Management at both airlines appear to have chosen a campaign of attrition, on the presumption that the pilots will tire of the lack of pay – and, in BA’s case, the loss of staff travel privileges – before the carrier makes any significant concessions.Meanwhile Ryanair is experiencing industrial relations problems on another front.Cabin crew in Spain are striking in protest about plans to close bases in the Canary Islands.