Ryanair bids to woo back pilots after mass f light

BRUISED and battered after the recent mass exodus of its pilots, Ryanair is now doing its best to try to woo them back.

The budget airline has repeatedly dismissed claims that disgruntled pilots have been leaving in droves, and says that it has been swamped by applications.

It has also denied that a shortage of pilots was behind its cancellation of around 700,000 flight bookings and more than 20,000 flights over the winter period.

But last night, it emerged that the airline is desperately trying to get former pilots to return to the fold, stressing that pay and working conditions have improved since they left. The airline has emailed former Ryanair pilots and is also targeting pilots from other airlines, including Jet2 and Norwegian Air, on career networking sites.

In an email seen by the Mail, Ryanair’s flight operation manager Elaine Griffin says: ‘I hope you are keeping well since you left Ryanair.’

She describes the ‘significant changes that are taking place at Ryanair’ – including a pay rise of around 20% for pilots and first officers, as well as ‘significantly increased resources in pilot rostering, crew control, bases management and training’.

She concludes: ‘If you are interested in having a conversation about returning to Ryanair, we would be delighted to hear from you.’

One Ryanair captain, who has worked at the airline for almost a decade, said: ‘This just shows how desperate they are. It’s not money that people are after, it’s a modern, up-to-date contract.’

The airline is also targeting pilots at rival airlines on career networking website LinkedIn. In one message, the airline’s pilot recruiter Darren Kinsella writes: ‘With our new improved pay deals, our captains can earn 26% more than Jet2 and 20% more than Norwegian.’ The overture has angered Jet2. which has urged pilots to resist Ryanair’s advances.

In an email, Captain Paul Dobson, Jet2’s director of flight operations, said: ‘We’ve always recognised that to be based in an area that you wish to live, to have career opportunities to aspire to and achieve, all supported by a lifestyle that is sustainable, is key to attracting and retaining our pilots.’

Earlier this month, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary sent an extraordinary letter to the airline’s pilots, begging them to stay and offering them better pay and working conditions than at rival airlines.

He claimed he hadn’t been referring to Ryanair pilots when he said at the company’s AGM last month that pilots get ‘very well paid for doing what is a very easy job’. The airline claims it was forced to cancel hundreds of thousands of flights because it ‘messed up’ its holiday rota, resulting in a shortage of pilots.

It has rejected claims by unions that the real reason for the cancellations was a shortage caused by an exodus of pilots to other airlines.

On Tuesday, Ryanair pilots in Spain rejected an offer from the carrier of a pay rise of up to 22% – because the airline won’t recognise their union.

‘It just shows how desperate they are’