Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary says 3,000 jobs at risk unless pay cuts agreed
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary today confirmed that the airline would cut 3,000 jobs if it was not able to agree pay cuts with staff.
Speaking to the BBC, O’Leary said: “We’ve already announced about 3,000 job losses but we’re engaged in extensive negotiations with our pilots, our cabin crew and we’re asking them to all take pay cuts as an alternative to job losses.
“We’re looking from 20 per cent from the best paid captains, 5 per cent from the lowest paid flight attendants and we think if we can negotiate those pay cuts by agreement, we can avoid most but not all job losses.”
Back in May Ryanair warned that it might have to make around the same number of roles redundant due to the coronavirus pandemic, slating July for the restructuring programme.
Pilots’ union Balpa said today that 260 of the 330 pilots’ jobs at risk had been saved after members had agreed a 20 per cent pay cut.
The union said it had negotiated that the 20 per cent reduction be reinstated over the next four years.
The remaining seventy jobs could still be cut as they relate to potential base closures at Leeds Bradford, Prestwick, Bournemouth and London Southend.
General secretary Brian Strutton said: “It was our members’ mandate for us to save as many jobs as possible. In the circumstances this is the right thing to do even if it means accepting difficult temporary reductions in pay”.
News of the cuts came after rival carrier Easyjet revealed yesterday that it had begun consultations on getting rid of a third of its roles, including over 700 pilots.
The budget airline will also shut three of its bases at London Stansted, London Southend, and Newcastle.
O’Leary’s comments came as the airline said it was aiming to fly 4.5m passengers in July as it returns to a more normal schedule after the disruption of the previous months.
Although the figure is nearly 70 per cent lower than the number of passengers Ryanair flew in the same month last year, it represents a huge increase on April and May, when the airline flew just 110,000 people.
From today, Ryanair will operate around 1,000 daily flights, covering 90 per cent of its network.
Next month, it is looking to increase passenger numbers further, up to 5.5m to 6m.
However, O’Leary warned that ticket prices would probably not get back to pre-coronavirus levels until 2022 at the earliest.
O’Leary was upbeat despite the fact that the government is yet to make a long-awaited announcement on whether it will implement air bridges to other low-risk countries.
An announcement had been slated for Monday, but is yet to be forthcoming.