Ryanair announces 3,000 pilot and cabin crew jobs may be lost

Up to 3,000 jobs across pilots and cabin crew could be cut at Ryanair.
Ryanair announces 3,000 pilot and cabin crew jobs may be lost

Up to 3,000 jobs across pilots and cabin crew could be cut at Ryanair.

The budget airline group announced that a restructuring programme could also involve unpaid leave and pay slashed by up to 20%, as well as the closure of “a number of aircraft bases across Europe” until demand for air travel recovers.

Chief executive Michael O’Leary, whose pay was cut by 50% for April and May, has agreed to extend the reduction for the remainder of the financial year to March 2021.

Ryanair said its flights will remain grounded until “at least July” and passenger numbers will not return to 2019 levels “until summer 2022 at the earliest”.

The airline said it is "as a direct result of the unprecedented Covid-19 crisis, the grounding of all flights from mid-March until at least July, and the distorted State Aid landscape in Europe."

They said they will notify trade unions shortly about the restructuring and job loss program, which will start in July.

Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said the airline industry has never face a period like this.

“We’ll carry less than 150,000 passengers in the three months to June compared to a budget of 42 million,” he said. “We are 99.5% behind our original traffic projections.”

“We do expect to be back flying a limited programme by July, August and into September.”

The airline said it expects to carry no more than half its original target of passenger in the second quarter of 2020.

Meanwhile, it expects to carry 33.5% fewer passengers than planned over the coming 12 months.

Mr O’Leary said the airline would now start a process on consultation with staff unions.

“If we are going to carry a third less passengers this year, I am afraid we are going to need fewer pilots and fewer cabin crew,” he said.

“We are going to have to lose about 3,00 pilots and cabin crew- that is about 15% of our workforce.

“The remainder will be facing pay cuts for the next two years of up to 20%.”

The airline has also hit out at what it calls “unlawful and discriminatory State Aid” offered to a number of legacy airlines by their governments.

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