Irish budget carrier Ryanair issued a shocking announcement that it foresees up to 1,500 redundancies among its employees. Those are 500 pilots, about 400 flight attendants, plus 600 fewer than expected positions in the hiring plans of cabin staff.
This was reported by Bloomberg who viewed the video message through which CEO Michael O’Leary gave the news to the staff. This decision was linked to the drop in profits, delays in expansion plans due to the grounding of Boeing 737 Max aircraft, and the uncertainties of the Brexit effect.
The layoffs should be decided by the end of August, after discussions with the airports and the unions of the 86 European bases of the Irish low-cost airline.
The cuts will then start between September and October and will last until after Christmas.
«It’s a busy summer and we will have to face a very difficult winter. In the next two weeks, we will do our best to minimize job losses, but some at this stage is inevitable,” said Michael O’Leary, announcing what is likely to be the company’s largest staff cut, with around 10% of its current 5.500 pilots at risk.
At this point, possibility of losing their job with could lead the airline staff to labor unrest and strikes that could cause inconvenience to passengers in the height of summer.
