Ryanair director points to ‘savage cuts’ in operation

  • Lusa
  • 21 August 2020

Darrell Hughes, Ryanair's Human Resources director, says there is a real prospect of savage cuts in Portugal in the winter season in terms of capacity and aircraft.

Ryanair’s Human Resources director said in an interview with Lusa that there is a real prospect of savage cuts in Portugal in the winter season in terms of capacity and aircraft due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We are facing very uncertain times, and there is a very real prospect of savage cuts in Portugal this winter in all our bases, in terms of capacity and planes,” Darrell Hughes, Ryanair’s Human Resources director, told Lusa in a telephone interview.

Urged to give figures, the head of the low-cost Irish airline said that there is the possibility of massive cuts anywhere in the company’s European operation, referring to the announcement made on Monday that the company would cut 20% of its planned schedule for September and October.

“Any predictions now for the winter are probably wrong. We are keeping everything under great scrutiny, but we will have far fewer flights than we had last winter, that is for sure,” he said, considering that it would be speculation to try to predict figures on the reductions.

“The figure we still have to find out is precisely where the cuts will fall, but we certainly expect some of those cuts to be in Portugal,” he said.

Darrell Hughes recalled that the company has an agreement with the pilots to keep people employed, which at least gives them some protection, but said that the company is not in recruitment mode, but in survival and reconstruction mode.

The director of Ryanair said that it does not plan to use any Crewlink personnel in winter, in a reference to the temporary work company that has been operating for more than 10 years in Portugal and has Ryanair as its only client.

The Irish airline Ryanair announced on Monday a 20% reduction in the number of flights in September and October, pointing to a drop in bookings due to an increase in Covid-19 cases in Europe.

Ryanair, which until now had planned to return to 70% of its capacity in September, explained in a statement that it had to reduce its planned flights to France and Spain, two countries included in the quarantine imposed by the British government.

In a communiqué, the company explained that the reductions are mainly due to a lower frequency of flights and not to service interruptions.

“The drop in capacity and frequency of flights in September and October are inevitable given the recent reduction in bookings following restrictions adopted in some European countries,” said a Ryanair spokesman quoted in the communiqué.