Fasten your seatbelt for a Secret Pilot’s astonishing revelations about the airline
I’M A Ryanair pilot and, as such, I’m treated like crap and used to it.
The way we’re treated is disgusting. That’s why Michael O’Leary trying to make overtures to us now is laughable.
Like all my colleagues, I’m not allowed a free cup of tea or coffee on the airplane. If we want it, we have to pay, even after flying four sectors [flights] a day.
If we forget our wallet, hard luck.
BRING IN OUR OWN CUPS AND TEABAGS
They even tried to stop us having water. Then the pilots’ union said we had to be allowed water – it was a health and safety issue. So now we’re allowed free water on the airplane. Some of the guys bring in tea bags to put in the hot water, which is nearly the same as free tea. But, of course, we’re not allowed to take the cardboard cups, so a lot of guys bring their own cups and tea bags now. That’s how it is in Ryanair. My mother, when she’s away in a hotel, empties all the sachets of tea, coffee and hot chocolate into her bag and posts them to me. I do the same in hotels. We all do. Not very glam, eh?
A PACKED LASAGNE
I know one old guy retired from Aer Lingus who did a bit of flying with us. His wife used to make him lasagne to bring to work so he’d get a meal during the day. He’d get the flight attendants to heat it up for him and the smell was so good, it drove everyone mad. After working here for four years, I believe Michael O’Leary hates pilots. He has nothing but contempt for us. If there’s an opportunity for us to be humiliated, Ryanair will take it.
WATER SAFETY TRAINING … IN A PUBLIC POOL
The writing was on the wall from day one. When I joined Ryanair and was with the pilot training unit, we had to do mandatory water-safety training.
Like everything else with Ryanair, it was on the cheap. Unlike the other big airlines, Ryanair does these exercises in a public pool! When they told me first, I
thought they were joking. BA would hire a pool or use a staff pool. Some airlines bring you away for the night.
With Ryanair we had to get the bus or train there and pay in ourselves! I think it was £1.
Then we had to do all our emergency drills in front of people who were using the pool. They brought along a chute to the pool which we had to go down and there was a raft as well.
One guy saw the writing on the wall and told them to stick it. In retrospect, he had the right idea.
BEGGED FOR TRANSFER BUT IT WAS DENIED
I’m based out of Stansted but I’m Irish and my family is in Dublin. For personal reasons, I begged to be transferred to Dublin but I was told no, there were no vacancies.
One day coming back to Dublin, I was sitting on the jumpseat and the pilot told me he was based in Dublin but trying desperately to get transferred to London.
That kind of thing is par for the course – if they had wanted, they could have facilitated both of us but helping people is not on the Ryanair agenda.
PILOTS AS A THREAT
For over 20 years, Michael O’Leary has singled out a single group of workers for abuse. I’m not sure why he does this.
Pilots are really quite simple; we just want to do what we love and earn some money at the same time. But Michael O’Leary is aware of the potential threat pilots have been to other airlines when their union became too powerful.
Air Berlin today is a great example. About to go bust, it’s being kept afloat by taxpayers to the tune of €150m and what have some pilots done there? Gone on strike. That’s an example of unions being stupid.
So Ryanair has completely neutered pilots by stamping down on them from day one. It’s no way to treat people,
colleagues and partners.
BOSSES SCREAM… AND FLING SHOES
At HQ in Dublin, there’s a Monday morning meeting of management where everybody shouts and screams at each other, led by O’Leary from the top. The operations guys could have seen this [current] crisis coming but they were probably afraid to tell O’Leary, because he’d scream at them.
I know that some people can’t sleep the night before that meeting and one operations guy had a shoe thrown at him. He’s now left.
BIDING MY TIME… LIKE MOST RYANAIR PILOTS
I’m just biding my time here. Pilots don’t hang around Ryanair too long, except the ones who are on good deals and have shares.
I joined on a five-year ‘Brookfield’ contract. [English company Brookfield Aviation engage pilots who then fly for Ryanair. It is believed to supply the majority of Ryanair’s pilots]. When I first started I was earning €35 an hour and struggled to earn €2,000 a month before tax. But one of the positives about working here is that you fly a lot of hours very quickly. So in four years you can go from first officer to captain. If you’re out of contract, you can leave at that point and walk into a plum job. The middle eastern airlines, Etihad and Emirates, are very happy to see Ryanair captains coming along. We’re punctual, well drilled, we’ve an excellent safety record. And I can tell you, most of us have absolutely no loyalty to Ryanair. So after four years’ flying, you can be given control of a 777 airplane, flying around the world with good pay and conditions. And Ryanair will be a distant bad memory.