Turbulence downs Ryanair veteran
Irish discount carrier’s problems continue as chief operating officer set to quit amid a flight-cancellation crisis that has lost customers
Ryanair Holdings’s flight cancellation crisis enters its fourth week with no sign of abating after the public furore over 20,000 scrapped services claimed the first senior manager at the Irish discount carrier and pilots stepped up moves towards unionisation.
Ryanair Holdings’s flight cancellation crisis enters its fourth week with no sign of abating after the public furore over 20,000 scrapped services claimed the first senior manager at the Irish discount carrier and pilots stepped up moves towards unionisation.
Chief operating officer Michael Hickey is leaving at the end of October after almost three decades at the airline, Ryanair said on Friday, without naming a successor. Calling him a “hard act to replace”, it said Hickey would stay on in an advisory role, while Ryanair searches for a suitable successor.
The botched response to a pilot shortage, the result of sloppy vacation planning and defections to other carriers, has engulfed Ryanair for several weeks and enraged customers, regulators and politicians alike.
Michael O’Leary, the hardtalking CEO, took the unusual step of making a personal pledge to pilots last week, offering improved pay and career prospects to avert an open rebellion among employees.
O’Leary, who said previously that “villainising” him or someone else down the company food chain was not a priority, praised Hickey for his “enormous contribution” to Ryanair, which has turned itself into Europe’s largest discount carrier with its rock-bottom fares and fast aircraft turnarounds.
The exit of the executive and the CEO’s appeal to flight crew appears not to have headed off employee moves towards seeking collective bargaining. The Irish Independent reported that some pilots sought to create an unofficial union in the form of a pan-European employee representative committee — the name Ryanair uses for its own inhouse negotiating councils.
The newspaper cited a letter circulated at the weekend that it said laid out an action plan for establishing a central structured body, estimating that the move had the backing of pilots from at least 15 Ryanair bases.
That communication also appeared on a website claiming to represent the carrier’s pilots, where no names for its backers were given.
O’Leary has made a name for himself with his hard-charging approach that long prioritised cheap tickets and low costs. In recent years, he has worked to redefine the public perception of his airline by improving in-flight service and the check-in experience to widen the appeal to business travellers as competition for low-cost travel grows.
The cancellations, first announced in September, have affected flights for about 700,000 customers and reduced the company’s growth plans by 6-million passengers in 2017 and 2018. In order to focus all management attention to the response, Ryanair also scrapped plans to bid for insolvent carrier Alitalia, which would have given it access to long-distance routes, among O’Leary’s long-term expansion aspirations.
Ryanair’s efficiency, built on cheap seats and punctuality, helped to turn the firm into Europe’s largest airline by market value, but left it little room to manoeuvre when circumstances changed. The cancellation crisis erupted after mismanagement of pilots’ leave requirements that left it without enough cockpit crew to operate its full schedules. Hundreds of pilots have also left the carrier in the past year.
THE CANCELLATIONS, FIRST ANNOUNCED IN SEPTEMBER, HAVE AFFECTED FLIGHTS FOR ABOUT 700,000 CUSTOMERS