Responding to the announcement today (Friday 1 May) that Ryanair is planning to make 3,000 of its workers in Europe redundant and is also planning pay cuts for employees, Unite national officer for aviation Oliver Richardson said:
“This is another premature announcement, especially while the government’s job retention scheme remains fully up and running.
“Ryanair has significant cash reserves and is in a better place than many airlines to cope with the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has created.
“Ryanair has aid it will provide details of its proposals with Unite next week and the union will be arguing that this announcement should be reversed.
“The statement by Ryanair, which follows hot on the heels of the British Airways announcement, further underlines why it is absolutely imperative that the UK works with all relevant stakeholders to provide long-term financial assistance for the aviation sector.
“If the government fails to provide such assistance, which is already being offered by other European countries to their airlines, then the UK aviation sector faces a very bleak future.”