Plan to make Buzz take off again costs 440 jobs

A rescue plan for loss-making low-cost airline Buzz was announced today – with 13 routes being saved but 440 jobs lost.

Ryanair, which is taking over Buzz, said Buzz operations, which are shutting down for the month of April, would start again on May 1.

But of the 610 existing Buzz staff, just 170 will be staying on, operating longer flying hours on more pay.

Unions accused Ryanair today of forcing pilots and cabin crew to agree new terms “under duress”.

But Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary said his airline had been fair with staff, telling them that their airline was losing money and going out of business.

The routes that Buzz will operate from May 1 are to Dusseldorf, Berlin and Frankfurt in Germany; Bergerac, Brest, Grenoble, Toulouse, Tours, La Rochelle, Limoges and Poitiers in France; and Jerez and Murcia in Spain.

Ryanair said the rescued Buzz operation would, over the first 12 months, operate eight aircraft from its base at Stansted Airport in Essex and carry almost three million passengers.

Oli Jackson, a regional organiser for the British Transport and General Workers Union, said today: “We wish the new venture well, of course, but the news on job losses is stark and the way the cuts have been made is unacceptable.

“Staff have in our view signed new contracts under duress.”

He added that the union would be meeting Buzz’s current owners KLM to discuss the circumstances of the redundancies.

The GMB union also spoke about staff being “forced to sign” new contracts.

Mr O’Leary was asked today whether his airline had lost public goodwill and also lost the public relations battle over its handling of the Buzz takeover.

He replied: “Public goodwill is vastly overrated. It is better demonstrated by the number of people willing to fly on our airline. I don’t worry about public relations.”

He went on: “Our message about Buzz has been robust. Staff there were not well handled by Buzz management.

“We arrived in January and started telling them the truth that this thing is losing a million a week and it’s going out of business.

“I think hard times require hard messages. If the public relations causes some people to be upset, then tough. Such is life.”

Ryanair announced today that fares on the 13 Buzz routes would start from £9.99 for Dusseldorf and that there would be special offers on the routes for May to former Buzz passengers whose flights had to be cancelled in April.

In addition, Ryanair is offering one million seats on its own flights for just £10 one way for flights from March 21 to April 16.

Mr O’Leary said he was making the offer to encourage people to fly now that war with Iraq was imminent.

He said he did not think the conflict would have an impact on European air travel and he predicted that his airline’s bookings would rise 20% in the event of a war.