Ryanair to cut 250 office jobs as passenger numbers collapse

Ryanair is cutting 250 jobs across four offices, including Dublin, as Covid-19 travel bans continue to hit aviation.

The news comes as Europe’s biggest airline group negotiates plans with unions to reduce the number of pilots and cabin crew working for the business by 3,000.

Ryanair confirmed on Friday that it was cutting staff numbers at its Dublin headquarters, along with London Stansted, Madrid and Wroclaw in Poland by about 250. The group said it was cutting the jobs through a combination of ending probation periods and fixed-term contracts, resignations and redundancies.

Darrell Hughes, the airline group's people director, said the cuts would include a small number of compulsory redundancies in all four offices.

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“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 June 1st next,” he said.

Mr Hughes noted that Ryanair believed it would fly fewer than 100 million people this year, down from what it had estimated would be 155 million.

The group pointed out that the substantial fall in business for its airlines – Buzz in Poland, Malta Air, Laudamotion in Austria and Ryanair – meant these workers would not be needed when offices reopened on June 1st.

Ryanair did not say how many people would lose their jobs in each of the four offices.

Travel bans

Passenger numbers collapsed by 99 per cent across the airline’s network in April, May and June as European governments banned most travel in their efforts to contain the virus’s spread.

It now hopes to carry just 40 per cent of its normal passenger numbers from July.

Ryanair is continuing talks with unions over proposals to cut pilot and cabin crew numbers by 3,000 and reduce pay by 20 per cent. About 5,500 pilots and 9,000 cabin crew work for the group around Europe.

The group said it would announce further details of these cuts by the end of the month.

“Ryanair is also facing intense price competition across Europe as we are forced to compete with flag carrier airlines who have received over €30 billion in unlawful state aid subsidies from their governments,” said Mr Hughes.

He added that this aid would allow these rivals to engage in below-cost selling for many years.

The Irish group has already challenged tax rebates offered by France and Sweden to airlines registered in those countries and warned that it would oppose a near €800 million package being offered to Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian Airlines.

On Monday, Ryanair is due to publish results for its last financial year, which ended on March 31st, shortly after Covid-19 travel bans closed Europe’s skies.