Ryanair ‘knew of problem last year’
Ryanair warned of pilot crisis last year Final payouts bill could hit €35m Boss o’leary admits ‘it’s our mess’
RYANAIR knew last year it could face a chronic pilot shortage but did nothing about it, a union claimed yesterday. The airline’s value fell nearly €362million as it faces paying out €35million for 2,000 cancelled flights.
BLUNDERING Ryanair knew last year about a pilot shortage which has left thousands of travellers stranded, it emerged yesterday.
A union claims the budget airline has also lost up to 700 pilots in the last financial year, with up to 140 going to a rival. But boss Michael O’leary claims emergency measures to cancel up to 50 flights a day for the next six weeks were caused by a holiday roster blunder. In that period 211 services in and out of Dublin will be ditched. In a rare public apology yesterday, the chief executive said: “This is our mess-up. When we make a mess in Ryanair we come out with our hands up. “We try to explain why we’ve made the mess and we will pay compensation to those passengers who are entitled to compensation. “Clearly there’s a large reputational impact for which again I apologise. We will try to do better in future. “In terms of lost profitability we think it will cost us something of the order of up to about €5million over the next six weeks and in terms of the EU261 compensation we think that will be a maximum of €20million.” Market analysts reckon the true cost to the carrier will be €35million. As 9,000 customers face more travel misery today, the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association claimed the crisis was flagged up more than a year ago. It said: “It seems clear Ryanair has failed to plan properly for the implementation of regulations.” It also highlights the huge turnover in pilots at the firm, claiming 700 have left in the last financial year and this is one of the reasons for the cancellations. Norwegian Airlines said many of them have become its employees. It added: “We can confirm 140 pilots joined us from Ryanair this year.” Changes imposed by Irish regulators, in line with European law, forced Ryanair to conform to staff holidays with the calendar year from January, requiring it to allocate leave before the end of the year. But in a recent memo sent to all pilots the airline’s chief operating officer Michael Hickey said: “As advised in my June quarterly update, the IAA (Irish Aviation Authority) required us to change our FTL year, which has always run from April 1 through March 31 to one that runs from January 1 to December 31 2017.” This shows that the company was well aware of the impending changes in the summer of 2016 but did not make provisions for them until now. Ryanair is understood to have brought in a number of emergency measures including pilot loyalty bonuses in a desperate bid to keep its crew. Under pressure at a press conference Mr O’leary said customers whose flights have been cancelled will receive an email by last night. This will inform them what flights they can transfer to, which will be “hopefully on the same or at worse the next day”. The Ryanair boss added: “If they’re not satisfied with the alternative flights offered they can have a full refund and they will all be entitled to their EU261 compensation. We will not be trying to claim exceptional circumstances.” Travel agents have been inundated with queries from concerned passengers. The Irish Travel Agents Association president Cormac Meehan said: “Our members have been inundated with queries from intending travellers who are uncertain if their flights will go ahead.” Fianna Fail transport spokesman Robert Troy added: “Hundreds of passengers have been impacted by these cancellations to date with many having to make alternative travel arrangements at short notice. “The handling of the situation by Ryanair has left a lot to be desired as many passengers only realised flights were hit after arriving at the airport.”