Irish carrier Ryanair said it will be able to ‘significantly
reduce’ the number of job cuts it was originally planning after striking a deal
with the majority of its pilots and cabin crew on pay reductions and work
practice changes.
The airline had originally announced it was considering
cutting up to 3,000 jobs as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, but it revised
its estimate last week after 97 per cent of pilots and more than 90 per cent of
cabin crew agreed to lower pay.
Ryanair’s director of operations Neal McMahon said: “We
haven’t finalised the number yet. We originally said there was going to be
3,000 redundancies but we have been able to reduce that significantly.
“Broadly speaking they [flight and cabin crew] recognise the
grim situation we are in and they have been pragmatic.”
McMahon said the actual number of redundancies will be based
on the airline’s winter bookings and what kind of impact the pandemic could
have on next year’s operations.
The carrier started restoring its operations in July,
reaching 60 per cent of its normal schedule in August, but recently announced
it will reduce capacity by 20 per cent in September and October due to weak
forward bookings.
Like other airlines, Ryanair has been calling on governments
to avoid quarantine measures for travellers and instead implement coronavirus
testing and adequate tracing at airports, partially blaming its upcoming
reduction in capacity and the slow recovery of passenger demand on the UK
government’s decision to reintroduce a self-isolation period of 14 days for
those arriving from popular holiday destinations such as Spain and France.
Meanwhile, reports say Easyjet has offered pilots seasonal
contracts and other alternative arrangements in a bid to mitigate job losses
after it announced in May that it would consider cutting staffing levels by up
to 30 per cent due to the impact of the pandemic. British Airways also
confirmed earlier this month that it will make more than 10,000 workers
redundant.