OFF AIR
Ryanair to cut 3,250 jobs and slash pay by 20% despite £894m profits
RYANAIR has today confirmed that up to 3,250 jobs could be slashed while staff face 20 per cent pay cuts, despite making profits of £894million.
The announcement comes as part of Ryanair's financial results published today, which has seen the budget carrier make a profit of €1billion (£894million) in the year to March 31, 2020.
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But Ryanair warns that this financial year will be "difficult" due to "uncertainty" over the impact and duration of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Job cuts are currently being consulted on, with up to 3,000 cabin crew and pilots, and 250 head office staff expected to be hit.
Similar job losses have also been announced at British Airways and Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays.
Ryanair says it expects to record a loss of over €200million in the first three months of 2021, with a smaller drop expected in the second quarter of the year.
How coronavirus has crippled the travel industry
HERE'S how coronavirus has hit major travel operators:
- British Airways has suspended all routes from London Gatwick and London City airports, and has moved all operations into terminal 5 at London Heathrow.
The airline is currently operating just one in ten of its usual flights.
On April 28, BA’s parent company IAG said it was preparing to cut 12,000 jobs from the airline’s 42,000-strong workforce.
Reports on April 30 suggest a quarter of pilot roles could be included in this number. - easyJet has grounded its entire fleet of 330 aircraft and cancelled all flights.
The airline hasn’t said when it will start flying again but its staff are currently being given a two-month leave of absence, meaning the measures will last at least until June. - Flybe collapsed into administration on March 5.
The airline had been losing money for several months, with it narrowly avoiding going under in January 2020, but coronavirus was understood to have had a severe impact on bookings. - Jet2 has cancelled all flights and holiday packages until June 17.
The airline is expected to start flying again from the middle of June.
However, this could change depending on the lockdown situation. - Ryanair has grounded 99 per cent of its fleet due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Remaining flights are operating on an emergency schedule only for passengers trying to return to the UK.
The airline has announced it could cut 3,000 jobs as part of a restructuring plan. - TUI has suspended all package holidays and cruises due to the crisis.
All trips have been cancelled until June 11, while Marella Cruise holidays won't resume until July.
The dates could be extended again depending on government advice. - Virgin Atlantic has suspended all flights, with no word on when it'll start flying again.
Virgin Group owner Richard Branson has asked the government for a bailout to keep the airline going, as well as private investors. But 3,150 staff also face the axe.
It follows the fall of Virgin Australia into administration after being refused a bailout from the Australian government. - Wizz Air had grounded the majority of its flights, with limited routes to Hungary, Bulgaria and Poland.
However, the airline has today resumed some routes from London Luton Airport.
Destinations include Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Portugal, Spain and Israel.
The airline adds that it expects to carry fewer than 80million passengers in 2021 - almost 50 per cent below its original 154million target.
Most of Ryanair's fleet is currently grounded due to the coronavirus crisis and it expects to operate less than 1 per cent of its planned flying schedule between April and June this year.
But it is aiming to restore 40 per cent of flights by July and 60 per cent from August.
Passengers have already been told to expect temperature checks, face coverings and quarantine when flights resume.
But Ryanair boss, Michael O'Leary, expects quarantine measures to be lifted by the end of June.
He told this morning: "It's laughable that this government can come up with any plans for a quarantine that will be strict and fully enforced when already they're exempting the Irish, and the French.
"It's idiotic and it's unimplementable. You don't have enough police in the UK to enforce a two-week lockdown."
Mr O'Leary added: "The 14-day lockdown period has no credibility and I think it will be eliminated by the end of June anyway."
The Ryanair boss is instead calling on the UK government to make it mandatory for all passengers on airlines to wear masks.
He said: "There is considerable evidence that masks are effective in stopping the spread of Covid-19.
"It's the only way in actual fact that you can allow people onto mass transport."
Mr O'Leary added in an interview on today: "I think we'll see people moving again with some degree of freedom in July and August as long as in the case of Ryanair our passengers and people are all wearing masks, as it looks like masks are the most effective way of preventing any recurrence or spread of Covid-19."
When it comes to passenger refunds, Mr O'Leary told Sky News: "We're doing well [on refunds] given the historic backlog, we have a backlog of about 50million refunds to process.
"Over the last six weeks we've now processed about €300million (£267million) of refunds and we're about a quarter of a way through the backlog, and we're continuing to process refunds, and as we reopen we see more and more customers taking vouchers or more importantly free moves of their original booking into a future booking in July, August or September...
"We are processing cash refunds, it will just take us some weeks or months to get it to you."
Going back to its financial results, Ryanair has also criticised various European governments, which it says have offered £30billion in "unlawful" state aid to airlines including Air France-KLM, Alitalia, Lufthansa Group, Norwegian, and SAS.
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The budget carrier says it expects these airlines to slash prices, which it says will struggle to compete with.
In the UK, the government has warned against all but essential travel leading to millions of flights and holidays being cancelled, with many saying they're struggling to get refunds for these trips.
Globally, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has warned the Covid-19 crisis will see airline passenger revenues drop by $314billion (£254million) in 2020, a 55 per cent decline compared to 2019.
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