- Opinion
- 25 Jul 18
Ryanair announced today that it would be cutting its fleet by up to 20% meaning potential job cuts for 100 pilots and more than 200 cabin crew.
Staff members were handed production reports to staff members giving them a 90-day notice period. Staff members will be evaluated on their job performance, time-keeping and productivity.
They intend to shift more of their flights to Poland for their winter season.
CEO Peter Bellow released a statement saying, "We regret these base aircraft reductions at Dublin for Winter 2018, but the board has decided to allocate more aircraft to those markets where we are enjoying strong growth (such as Poland), and this will result in some aircraft reductions and job cuts in country markets where business has weakened, or forward bookings are being damaged by rolling strikes by Irish pilots."
Meanwhile, Ryanair once again apologised to customers over the significant disruptions to flights due to the industrial action by staff.
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The airline first sent out a tweet acknowledging the 50,000 customers who had been effected by the strikes. Flights to and from Belgium, France and Portugal had faced delays and cancellations, leaving many customers in the lurch and having to find alternative plans.
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) July 25, 2018
Whilst promising that these countries would no longer be impacted, the airline took to Twitter again to say that further delays were to be expected with flights to France, Germany and Greece.
ATC Update - July 25th: pic.twitter.com/0Ax6VjSWkv
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) July 25, 2018
Customers have expressed their outrage over the delays, with many complaining about how much money they have lost over the event -
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I just need to speak to someone, so frustrating, I am over £2000 out of pocket because you cancelled the flight whilst waiting to take off.
— kevin smith (@kevzigzag) July 25, 2018
Why text at 6.55 to say an 8.45 flight is cancelled @ryanair? We're already at the airport, car dropped off and your schedulers will have known you were dropping these flights last night. I see youre already claiming you don't need to pay compensation. #RyanairStrike
— Daniel Brown (@DanPBrown) July 25, 2018
However some users spoke out saying that people should expect a cheap service for a cheap ticket:
Don't like to see people strike, but the pilots are on a salary, they ain't losing to much, Love Ryanair or hate them, Michael O'Leary's never sold a lie, buy a cheap ticket, you get a flight to a destination! I've never had a bad experience with Ryanair. Grass is always greener!
— SunshineSpurs (@SunshineSpurs) July 24, 2018