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23rd Jul 2018

Nooo! Ryanair is warning customers there are more strikes to come

Her

Well… shit.

Ryanair have warned that there may be even more strikes in the near future.

The news comes after the airline’s worst ever week for strike action, which saw flights cancelled last week due to a dispute with trade unions.

The airline managed to avoid widespread strikes before Christmas by recognising trade unions for the first time in its history. But the airline has has since struggled to reach agreement on terms with several of them, with some unions complaining about the pace of negotiations.

Ryanair is Europe’s largest low-cost airline and flies in 37 countries, carrying over 130 million passengers last year.

CEO Michael O’Leary said that the airline expects more action over the peak summer period which will affect customers over the coming months.

“While we continue to actively engage with pilot and cabin crew unions across Europe, we expect further strikes over the peak summer period as we are not prepared to concede to unreasonable demands that will compromise either our low fares or our highly efficient model,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary also said the airline would consider moving planes from some markets, including Ireland, if disruptions continue which may lead to job losses.

“If these unnecessary strikes continue to damage customer confidence and forward prices/yields in certain country markets then we will have to review our winter schedule, which may lead to fleet reductions at disrupted bases and job losses in markets where competitor employees are interfering in our negotiations with our people and their unions.

“We cannot allow our customers flights to be unnecessarily disrupted by a tiny minority of pilots,” he said.