If they let you cancel you flight it will hurt their load factor and that will hurt the share price. Ryanair pride themselve on having full planes but if you read the small print the load factor is how many seats they have sold.
A lot of the offers at 1p were to inflate the number of people who seem to be using the airline and make the money on the fees and taxes of those who do not turn up. The profitable pax is the one who pays but does not fly.
The 3rd of November we get the half year report and see how bad the income is.