Assuming that the cancelled flights amount to about 2% of all seats, the effect of reduced bookings for the remaining 98% of flights (over six weeks) could well outweigh the direct compensation costs to those whose flights have been cancelled. And this ignores any further long-term reputational damage.
You don’t have to be a business genius to figure this out.
Would it make sense for Ryan air create some space for itself and minimise the effect on bookings by announcing now which flights will be cancelled over the next 6 weeks and guaranteeing the rest? To ensure the guarantee it might be necessary to cancel 3 or 4% of flights to free up more standby crew. I’ve just been listening to a discussion about Aer Lingus, who used to have frequent threatened strikes. Even though these hardly ever materialised, apparently the effect on bookings was immediate and very significant.