Ryanair has said it will recognise cabin crew unions, less than a week after agreeing to recognise pilot unions.
Ryanair issued a statement saying: "As Ryanair’s statement of Friday 15 December made clear, Ryanair is moving to recognise unions, starting this week with meetings with Irish, German and Portuguese pilot unions.
"It will lead on in the New Year to meetings with other EU pilot unions and cabin crew unions in due course as well."
Ryanair’s change of policy last week led to pilots agreeing to postpone planned strikes around Christmas.
On Tuesday evening this week, the airline began talks with representatives from Irish pilots’ union, Impact. It will also hold talks with pilot unions from Portugal and Germany this week and British and Italian organisations in early January.
Talks began at 5pm on Tuesday at Dublin Airport.
Ireland’s national TV and radio station, RTE, said financial analysts had calculated the decision to recognise pilots unions could add €150 million to the annual payroll – with an even higher cost once unions representing 8,000 cabin crew are factored in.
Ryanair has estimated that its cost base will rise by a total of €100 million a year following its decision to recognise unions, according to RTE.
It said Ryanair’s chief people office Eddie Wilson had described the move to recognising unions as ‘the new reality’ for the airline.
