Curtain has yet to fall on Ryanair’s flights drama
If airline’s pilots mobilise, its problems could yet get much worse, writes
TWO weeks on, and the pantomime of the Ryanair flights saga continues. By now, both passengers and investors are wondering when the curtain will fall on this debacle.
But more acts might yet have to be endured.
Shareholders in the airline have seen about €2.2bn wiped off the value of Ireland’s second biggest company in just the past two weeks. That underlines the concerns that investors have about how this whole affair is affecting the airline.
And while Ryanair had earlier this week put the likely ultimate cost of the current fiasco at less than €50m, it now looks as though the real final cost could be higher.
An analyst at financial firm Investec yesterday sounded a note of caution for shareholders over the likely cost of the cancellations.
“It appears that Ryanair’s strategy was to try and reroute passengers on its own flights and being forced to offer flights on other airlines will inevitably increase the costs,” he said.
The analyst acknowledged that the costs would be one-off, but that the saga would “drag on for longer”.
With the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) having hounded Ryanair to provide customers with the correct information and rights, the pressure on the airline and its management team significantly intensified this week.
The lights at Ryanair’s headquarters in north Dublin will burn bright again all weekend, as management and staff work to recover from what has been one of the airline’s worst performances to date.
Yesterday, Ryanair launched a one-million-seat sale to counter the impact of the last fortnight.
And make no mistake. Ryanair is a world away from being written off.
It’s a Goliath of global aviation, and people will vote
with their feet, and their wallets.
Once this eventually blows over, tens of millions of consumers all over Europe will continue to find cheap fares irresistible.
Meanwhile, Ryanair still has issues with pilots to contend with.
Their demands – even, apparently, an acknowledgement of them – remain unanswered, at least constructively, by Ryanair.
That is certain to stoke the discontent that appears to have deepened a rift with management.
Ryanair insists that there is no bad blood between management and pilots, and claims that missives despatched in the past fortnight making demands are what Donald Trump would deride as “fake news”.
“We will not respond or accede to anonymous demands made via unsigned emails for group or regional meetings, or for union interference at these internal ERC (Employee Representative Committee) meetings,” said Ryanair this week.
And it added that despite claims to the contrary, “hundreds” of its 4,200 pilots had offered to work time-off in order to help the airline fly its schedule.
Ryanair had offered to sweeten the honeypot for pilots, by offering them more money to work days-off over the next year. It said this week that because it is grounding 25 jets this winter, those pilots won’t now need to work those days-off. But it has still offered a further carrot of more money in an effort to keep them onside.
“Many of our pilots and ERCs have confirmed that these unsigned letters were drafted by pilots/unions of competitor airlines who wish to pursue an industrial relations agenda at the expense of Ryanair and its pilots,” insisted Ryanair.
For pilots, while money is an issue, it is not the issue.
It’s their terms and conditions, and the manner in which some feel they’re left hanging in the wind to deal with basics such as overnight hotel bookings when away from bases, that have contributed to dissatisfaction.
Michael O’Leary’s dismissive comments about pilots over a week ago also did little to endear him to men and women who have the power to halt flights.
The chief executive said that most of the time cockpit crews could just hit auto-pilot in the cockpit and have little else to do in what is a “very easy job”. Only in bad weather did they really their keep, he inferred.
Pilots argue that that’s exactly why you need crews who are experienced, good at their jobs and happy in their work.
There is undoubtedly a groundswell of movement amongst unions across Europe keen to bring Ryanair pilots into their folds.
At meetings this week in Dublin, it’s believed that a majority of Ryanair pilots based in the capital indicated that they are now members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association union.
If true, the issues Ryanair has been dealing with could pale into comparison with any active unrest that might occur in the coming weeks.
If pilots mobilise, this pantomime could turn in to a major drama.