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Ryanair ‘plans to recruit 125 new pilots’ amid flight cancellation debacle Ryanair may force pilots to change holiday plans amid flight cancellation debacle
(about 5 hours later)
Ryanair reportedly plans to recruit more than 100 new pilots within the next two weeks as Europe’s largest low-cost airline battles to limit the damage of mass cancellations across its sprawling fleet. Ryanair may force some pilots to change their holiday plans in an effort to limit the fallout from mass cancellations across its sprawling fleet.
The airline earlier this week announced that it plans to scrap 2,100 flights over the next six weeks, due to a crew shortfall which the company has described as a temporary problem caused by “messing up” an administrative change to the calendar. At its general shareholder meeting on Thursday, Europe’s largest low-cost airline said that pilots were this week offered a bonus of up to €12,000 (£10,600) to work 10 extra days to combat a huge staff shortage that has resulted in around 2,000 flight cancellations so far.
On Thursday, Sky News reported that Ryanair now plans to hire 125 new pilots "within the next week or two". Chief executive Michael O’Leary also said that pilots had collectively offered to work an extra 2,500 days since the crisis broke. A spokesperson for the company told The Independent that 125 new pilots had been hired in the past fortnight as part of an ongoing recruitment drive. 
Several Ryanair pilots have contacted The Independent with their accounts of the causes and consequences of the issue in recent days, with one saying that online groups are forming and “unifying to get Ryanair to make improvements”.  Mr O’Leary also denied reports that some pilots had rejected the extra cash and demanded more favourable contracts instead. He said that the pilots had not threatened industrial action.
Unlike other airlines, Ryanair is avowedly non-unionised, with an unusual arrangement whereby some pilots are indirectly contracted through limited companies. Several Ryanair pilots have contacted The Independent with their accounts of the causes and consequences of the issue in recent days, with one saying that online groups are forming and “unifying to get Ryanair to make improvements”. Unlike other airlines, Ryanair is avowedly non-unionised, with an unusual arrangement whereby some pilots are indirectly contracted through limited companies.
Speaking at the company’s annual general meeting on Thursday, chief executive Michael O’Leary said that the group is now planning to reclaim one week of its pilots' holidays to prevent any further flight cancellations. In order to cope with the fallout from the recent debacle, Mr O’Leary on Thursday said that the group is now planning to reclaim one week of its pilots’ holidays to prevent any further disruption. He said that those due to take a four-week block of holiday in the next few months because of changes to annual leave rotas may be told to cut that to three weeks.
He said that those due to take a four-week block of holiday in the next few months because of that change in annual leave rotas would be told to cut that to three weeks. Pilots, he said, will get the other week back in January.
Mr O’Leary said that the pilots will get the other week back in January. Overall, Ryanair expects the cost of the cancellations to amount to around €25m. Analysts have said, however, that they do not expect the hit to have a lasting impact on Ryanair’s finances.
He also said that Ryanair does not require the agreement of the pilots to take back the leave, and said that all the cancellations would likely cost the airline about €25m (£22m). Since Mr O’Leary became chief executive of the airline in 1994, it has grown rapidly to become the most profitable budget airline in Europe and in the year to the end of March, it made a profit after tax of €1.3bn.
Since Mr O’Leary became chief executive of Ryanair in 1994, it has grown rapidly to become the biggest budget airline in Europe — and by far the most profitable. On Wednesday the company announced its 87th base, at Bourgas on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria.
On Wednesday, Ryanair announced its 87th base, at Bourgas on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria.
The airline also said that 175,000 of the 315,000 passengers affected by the mass cancellations have been rebooked on alternative Ryanair flights.