Ryanair to put pilots on unpaid leave

RYANAIR has contacted its pilots to say they will be allocated one calendar week unpaid leave this winter due to the grounding of aircraft.

The airline said yesterday that following meetings with pilot representatives at Dublin and Stansted it contacted pilots to inform them that almost all Ryanair pilots at Stansted and a number of Dublin- based captains and co-pilots will be allocated one calendar week unpaid leave this winter.

Ryanair said it will look at a number of factors including earnings to date in order to allocate this leave in a way that will minimise the impact on pilots.

There are 1,700 pilots working for Ryanair.

The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) has criticised the airline’s approach, saying the company was wrong to try to force pilots to take an effective pay cut.

Ryanair said yesterday that it had cancelled flights from Birmingham airport and postponed the introduction of new routes from Dusseldorf, Germany, after a strike by Boeing machinists delayed delivery of new planes.

The airline is cancelling flights on 21 routes from Birmingham between October 24 and 28 and delaying the services from Dusseldorf until October 30.

However, it said it is adding four routes from Madrid’s Barajas airport to expand in the Mediterranean region.

Starting in November, Ryanair will start four new Spanish routes and double frequency from Madrid to Milan and Santander.

Ryanair also called on British Airways (BA), Air France, Lufthansa and Aer Lingus to reduce their fuel surcharges as oil prices have fallen by over 30% in recent weeks.

Director of communications Stephen McNamara said: “Greedy airlines need to realise that passengers are no longer willing to pay unjustified fuel surcharges.

“Airlines such as BA, Air France, Aer Lingus and Lufthansa were quick to increase surcharges as fuel prices rose. However, they are less responsive to the fall in fuel prices and passengers are yet to see any of these airlines reduce or remove the surcharges.”