Ryanair set for further job cuts as winter capacity reduced to 40%

Budget airline Ryanair has announced that further redundancies are on the horizon with the reduction of its winter schedule.

The firm has confirmed that its winter schedule will be reduced from 60 per cent to 40 per cent of the prior year’s capacity, due to increased flight restrictions imposed by EU governments across Europe.

In addition to the winter closure of bases in Cork, Shannon, and Toulouse, Ryanair has announced ‘significant’ base aircraft cuts in Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Vienna.

Ryanair’s Group CEO, Michael O’Leary, commented: “While we deeply regret these winter schedule cuts they have been forced upon us by Government mismanagement of EU air travel.

“Our focus continues to be on maintaining as large a schedule as we can sensibly operate to keep our aircraft, our pilots and our cabin crew current and employed while minimising job losses.

He added: “It is inevitable, given the scale of these cutbacks, that we will be implementing more unpaid leave, and job sharing this winter in those bases where we have agreed reduced working time and pay, but this is a better short term outcome than mass job losses.

“There will regrettably be more redundancies at those small number of cabin crew bases, where we have still not secured agreement on working time and pay cuts, which is the only alternative.

“We continue to actively manage our cost base to be prepared for the inevitable rebound and recovery of short haul air travel in Europe once an effective Covid-19 vaccine is developed.”