Ryanair strike: airline steps up propaganda war

Six hundred flights have been cancelled because of a two-day cabin-crew walk-out in Spain, Portugal and Belgium

As the biggest strike in Ryanair’s 34-year history begins, the airline has stepped up a campaign to portray cabin crew and pilots’ demands as unreasonable – and revealed the first job cuts in response to industrial action.

Cabin crew based in Spain, Portugal and Belgium are staging a coordinated two-day strike as part of a Europe-wide campaign. Their “Ryanair crew charter” demands action on 34 issues, starting with: “A fair living wage that reflects the work we do.”

Other key concerns are seniority pay, less-unpredictable rostering and compensation for disrupted schedules.

The Irish airline has cancelled a total of 600 flights on Wednesday and Thursday, requiring 100,000 passengers to find alternative travel or accept a full refund.

The cancellations represent about one in eight of Ryanair’s flights in Europe on each day.

Ryanair has also cancelled dozens of flights because of a series of one-day strikes by pilots employed in Ireland, most recently on Tuesday. The pilots are in dispute over seniority issues and base transfers.

In response to the strikes, the airline says it will reduce its Dublin-based fleet by one-fifth for the coming winter, and switch at least six aircraft to its Polish charter operation. Ryanair blames “a downturn in forward bookings and airfares in Ireland,” partly due to the strikes by Irish pilots.

Ryanair staff demonstrate during the first day of a strike by the company's cabin crew at Palma airport in Mallorca (EPA)

Ryanair said the strikes have cut high-fare bookings made close to departure, as well as forward air fares “as consumer confidence in the reliability of our Irish flight schedules has been disturbed”. Up to 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew face redundancy.

The airline’s chief operations officer, 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”.

Ryanair has also stepped up its campaign to show that crew are well paid. The airline has now published online the pay slips of a wide range of flying staff, showing annual salaries ranging from €25,429 (£22,593) for a junior member of cabin crew employed in Belgium to £219,429 for a UK captain.

It is not clear how representative these examples are of pay levels.

Announcing a 20 per cent fall in profits in its first quarter results on Monday, Ryanair warned passengers to “expect further strikes over the peak summer period” – saying: “We are not prepared to concede to unreasonable demands that will compromise either our low fares or our highly efficient model.”

It appears that the airline, which recognised trades unions on in December 2017, is determined to face down strikes.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has urged passengers grounded by the strikes to claim compensation under European air passengers’ rights rules, known as EU261. The legislation stipulates compensation of either €250 or €400 for European flights, depending on the length of the journey.

Ryanair says it will reject reject any claims, saying: “As these flight cancellations were caused by extraordinary circumstances, no compensation is due.

“Under EU261 legislation, no compensation is payable when the union is acting unreasonably and totally beyond the airline’s control.”

The airline says that it does not expect any further cancellations on Wednesday or Thursday in addition to those already notified.

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