On Friday 15 May 2020, Ryanair, Europe’s largest low fares airline, confirmed it has reduced its office headcount in Dublin, Stansted, Madrid and Wroclaw by over 250 through a combination of probation/fixed term contract ends, resignations and redundancies, as these people will not be required to return to work on 1 June, when the Ryanair offices reopen, due to the substantial decline in traffic the Ryanair Group Airlines is facing in 2020.
Ryanair Airlines have operated less than 1% of their normal flight schedules during April, May and June, and this week announced that only 40% of its normal schedules would operate in July 2020. For the full year, Ryanair now expects to carry less than 100 million passengers, over 35% lower than the 155m+ target for the year ended March 2021.
Ryanair’s People Director Darrell Hughes said “This is a very painful time for Ryanair, our crews and our people supporting operations from our Dublin, Stansted, Madrid and Wroclaw offices. While we expect to re-open our offices from 1 June next, we will not require the same number of support team members in a year when we will carry less than 100m passengers, against an original budget of 155m. Regrettably, we will now have a small number of compulsory redundancies in Dublin, Stansted, Madrid and Wroclaw to right size our support teams for a year when we will carry less than 100m passengers due to the Covid-19 crisis. These job losses were communicated to individual team members this week, and they will not be returning to work in our Dublin, Stansted, Madrid or Wroclaw offices when they reopen on 1 June next."
He concluded "We are continuing to meet our pilot and cabin crew unions across Europe to finalise up to 3,000 job cuts and 20% pay cuts as we return to approx. 40% of our normal flight schedules from July onwards. Ryanair is also facing intense price competition across Europe as we are forced to compete with flag carrier airlines who have received over €30bn in unlawful State Aid subsidies from their Governments, and who will be able to engage in below low cost selling for many years with the benefit of this illegal State Aid. Further announcements on Ryanair crew job losses and pay cuts are expected before the end of May in the light of further and on-going flight restrictions”.
