More: Ryanair publishes employee salary levels amid pay and conditions dispute
Ryanair is to cut its Dublin-based fleet by 20% for this winter season with 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew jobs under threat.
The budget carrier is to reduce the number of aircraft flying out of the Irish capital from 30 to 24.
Frequency will be hit on services but Ryanair says “few route closures are expected”.
The airline’s reductions have been driven by the growth of its Polish charter airline and a downturn in forward bookings and airfares in Ireland which it blames “partly” on strikes by Irish pilots, which it says has affected high fare bookings and forward air fares due to hitting consumer confidence.
Ryanair’s Polish airline, Ryanair Sun, will operate at least 10 aircraft to Polish tour operators, more than double the five it offered in summer 2018.
In the light of the Dublin base cuts, Ryanair has issued 90-day letters of protective notice to over 100 pilots and over 200 cabin crew employees, whose services it says it may not need from 28 Oct onwards
Consultations over redundancy will now begin, and will be determined by the airline’s assessment of flight performance, productivity, attendances, and base transfer requests.
Ryanair will be offering its Dublin-based pilots and cabin crew transfers to Poland, and possibly some other bases, for winter 2018.
Chief operating officer Peter Bellew said: “We regret these base aircraft reductions at Dublin for winter 2018, but the board has decided to allocate more aircraft to those markets where we are enjoying strong growth (such as Poland), and this will result in some aircraft reductions and job cuts in country markets where business has weakened, or forward bookings are being damaged by rolling strikes by Irish pilots.
“Ryanair operates a fleet of over 450 aircraft from 87 bases across Europe. We can only do so if we continue to offer low fares, reliable flight services to our customers, and if our reputation for reliability or forward bookings is affected, then base and potential job cuts such as these at Dublin are a deeply regretted consequence”.
More: Ryanair publishes employee salary levels amid pay and conditions dispute