Almost 400 Ryanair flights to be grounded

Ryanair has been forced to suddenly cancel a further 250 flights to and from Germany on Friday after German pilots yesterday announced they would join other pilots across Europe in a 24-hour walk out.

The airline had already cancelled 146 flights across Europe on Friday due to planned strikes by pilots in Ireland, Belgium and Sweden. Ryanair pilots in Holland are also considering striking.

The walkouts mean more than 15% of Ryanair’s flights will be grounded tomorrow. The German strike alone will hit about 42,000 passengers.

The German pilots’ union Vereiningun said it hoped the strikes would force Ryanair to enter into ‘serious negotiations’ over pay and conditions.

Pilots claim their salaries are made up of an unusually high variable component based onhow much they fly, which means their pay can drop if they have extended periods of sick leave.

They are also frustrated at being moved to bases in other countries across Europe at short notice.

Ryanair said its German pilots received a 20% pay rise at the start of the year and can take home almost £170,000 a year.

Spokesman Kenny Jacobs said:"We regret the decision of the VC to go ahead with this unnecessary strike action given that we sent through a revised proposal on a Collective Labour Agreement (on Fri 3 Aug) and stated our intention to work towards achieving a CLA together.

"We also invited VC to meet us on Tuesday (7 Aug) but they did not respond to this invitation.

"Our pilots in Germany enjoy excellent working conditions. They are paid up to €190,000 p.a. and, as well as additional benefits, they received a 20% pay increase at the start of this year.

"Ryanair pilots earn at least 30% more than Eurowings and 20% more than Norwegian pilots.

"We asked VC to provide us with at least seven days’ notice of any planned strike action so that we could notify our customers of cancelled flights in advance and offer them alternative flights or refunds, but they have refused to do this and instead call an unnecessary strike in Germany in just two days’ time.

"Ryanair is now forced to cancel 250 flights of over 2,400 flights scheduled to operate on Friday 10 August. We apologise to our customers for this unnecessary strike and regrettable disruption."

The airline said it is not intending to pay passengers compensation for the cancellations. It said: "Under EU261 legislation, no compensation is payable when the union is acting unreasonably and totally beyond the airline’s control. If this was within our control, there would be no cancellations."

Related News Stories: