Ryanair strikes pay deals with 97% of its pilots and 90% of cabin crew

Ryanair (LON: RYA) said on Friday that more than 90% of its cabin crew and about 97% of pilots have so far agreed to changes in work practices and pay cuts. The cooperation from the workforce, Ryanair’s director of operations, Neal McMahon, commented, is expected to significantly reduce the number of jobs that the airline will have to cut to cushion the economic blow from COVID-19.

Originally, Ryanair had expressed plans of slashing its workforce by as much as 3,000 jobs. The Irish airline had announced earlier this year that its cabin crew and pilots were expected to face a 20% cut on salary. In the event of disagreement, Ryanair had said, it will have to layoff one out of every five pilots and cabin crew members.

Ryanair’s deal with Belgium pilots is outstanding

Europe’s largest low-cost air carrier inked an agreement on Thursday with Spanish pilots. A similar deal with cabin crew in Germany and Italy and pilots in Belgium is currently outstanding. According to McMahon:

“We haven’t finalised the number yet, we originally said there was going to be 3,000 redundancies but we have been able to reduce that significantly. Broadly speaking, they (pilots and cabin crew) recognise the grim situation we are in, and they have been pragmatic.”

As per the airline, talks progressed further on Friday in Germany. In Italy, the cabin crew union decided in favour of placing the deal out to ballot.

Ryanair’s flights’ schedule was 40% lower than normal in August

Ryanair resumed services last month. Its flights were only 40% lower than its regular schedule in August. The exact number of jobs that the air carrier will have to cut, as per McMahon, will be based on demand during this year’s winter season and how the health crisis curbs travelling in 2021.

The budget airline said in July that its first-quarter revenue came in 95% lower on an annualised basis.

Ryanair closed the regular session more than 1% up on Friday. On a year to date basis, Ryanair is currently more than 20% down in the stock market. Compared to its low of £7.34 per share, however, the company has now recovered roughly 45% in almost five months.

Its performance in the stock market last year was also reported upbeat with an annual gain of about 45%. At the time of writing, Ryanair has a market capitalisation of £11.13 billion.