Ryanair has issued a 90-day protective notice to over 300 of its staff “whose services may not be required from 28 Oct onwards.”
According to a statement by the company, Ryanair will be cutting its Dublin fleet from 30 planes to 24 over the winter period. As such, over 100 pilots and over 200 cabin staff have been notified that they may not have a job beyond that point.
The move, agreed upon today by the Ryanair board, has been partially attributed by Ryanair to “down turn in forward bookings and airfares in Ireland partly as a result of recent rolling strikes by Irish pilots.” The decision will come into effect over the the winter 2018 season.
The statement further noted that the decision was largely driven by “the rapid growth of Ryanair’s Polish charter airline, Ryanair Sun.” The move will allow for the expansion of Ryanair Sun, which will now offer 10 aircraft to Polish tour operators.
The airline stipulated that it would be “offering transfers to Poland (and possibly some other bases) to these Dublin based pilots and cabin crew employees for Winter 2018 in order to minimise any redundancies.”
Ryanair has been embroiled in a union dispute over the past few months, and its pilots who are part of Irish Air Line Pilots Association (IALPA) have embarked on several strike days which have forced the airline to cancel several flights.
Company COO Peter Bellew said: “Ryanair operates a fleet of over 450 aircraft from 87 bases across Europe. We can only do so if we continue to offer low fares, reliable flight services to our customers, and if our reputation for reliability or forward bookings is affected, then base and potential job cuts such as these at Dublin are a deeply regretted consequence”.
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