ASHAMED TO BE A RYANAIR PILOT
»»Flier: They are such a horrible firm to work for »»Flights misery to go on as staff plan to quit
FED-UP staff at Ryanair are planning a mass exodus which could lead to further misery for travellers. Bosses yesterday sent a plea to pilots offering them bonuses of up to €13,500 to ditch holidays to avoid cancellations. But a Ryanair crew member, who dubbed the airline “a shower of s***”, said disruption would get worse as employees quit for other carriers. The Ryanair pilot said: “It’s embarrassing. The worst thing about flying for this company is telling people who you work for. “Everyone is trying to get out – even those who have been here 20 years – as Ryanair run the place on a shoestring. “People are leaving because they are just such a shower of s***. They are a horrible company to work for. “We are not unionised, but if we were, there would have been strikes by now. “They have got this far through the summer working on goodwill. But it has disappeared now.” So far the airline has axed 2,000 flights, affecting 400,000 passengers. Boss Michael O’leary repeatedly apologised to customers at a press confer- ence yesterday. But there was more anger as it was revealed 250,000 passengers will miss out on compensation because EU rules say that payouts only have to be paid for flights cancelled with two weeks’ notice or less. Travellers will be entitled to book new flights, however. A memo to pilots from chief operations officer Michael Hickey, seen by the Mirror, read: “To avoid further cancellations, we are requesting between one and two blocks of five days from every pilot who has already been assigned their month-off. “All pilots who remain operating Ryanair aircraft between September and October 31st will receive a onceoff £12,000 [€13,520] gross bonus for captains and £6,000 [€6,760] for first officers.” But sources say the offer of a bonus will not solve the issue as problems are linked to hiring and retaining flight crew. The pilot, who has a young family, added: “They would have enough crew if we were all paid properly. Then retention wouldn’t be an issue. “Very few pilots see Ryanair as a career airline and move on to more respectable terms and conditions as quick as possible. Ryanair have been completely irresponsible by selling tickets to these poor passengers. “They have taken money off people knowing full well they would have to cancel the flights.” The Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association said more than 700 pilots left Ryanair in the last financial year. And 80 cabin crew left the airline’s base at Stansted airport last week. Angry customers ranted on Ryanair’s Facebook page yesterday to get around the ban on comments on its website. More than 32,000 posted comments, including Alistair Oliver, who wrote: “You shower of b ****** s have completely f **** d up my only break this year.” Blazej Nowicki said: “You ruined my wedding day. Three days trying to contact Ryanair. You’re an absolute joke.” A Ryanair spokesman said: “We don’t comment on rumour or speculation.”