Shares windfall for Ryanair pilots

RYANAIR pilots are to receive windfalls of €50,000 in share options, the company announced yesterday.

The airline said many of its Dublin pilots will next month exercise share options, which at the current share price of over €7 have a profit of around €50,000 each.

These share options formed part of the five-year pay, benefit and share option scheme negotiated between the Dublin pilots and the airline in November 2000. A Ryanair captain receives over €120,000 a year in earnings.

The total value of the shares held by each qualifying pilot under the scheme are valued at over €175,000. These share options are the ninth set Ryanair’s Dublin pilots have each received over the last nine years.

Ryanair’s director of personnel, Eddie Wilson said: “This ninth round of share options is the latest in a long line of share options and other benefits which Ryanair’s pilots have successfully negotiated directly with the airline in recent years.”

These options, if disposed of at the exercise date, will have generated a total profit of almost €300,000 for each qualifying Dublin pilot.

Mr Wilson said: “This €50,000 share option profit is just the latest benefit which Ryanair’s Dublin pilots have negotiated directly, through collective bargaining with the airline.

“Ryanair’s pay, promotion, job security and share options are better than any other similar 737 pilot package in Europe. This is why Ryanair has over the past 12 months recruited more than 150 pilots from other airlines including Easyjet, Lufthansa, SAS, Alitalia, Aer Lingus and British Midlands.”

Mr Wilson said Ryanair will continue to negotiate directly with their pilots through an internal collective bargaining process.

Last month, Ryanair lost its High Court bid to stop the Labour Court going ahead with a formal investigation of a row between it and a number of pilots. The company indicated at the time it would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

Last January, the Labour Court found it had jurisdiction to hear complaints by the airline’s pilots. Ryanair’s challenge in the High Court was to that decision of the Labour Court and it sought to prevent the latter proceeding with its investigation.