RYANAIR: More cancellations likely as pilots reject bonuses to work extra hours

MORE bad news is being forecast for Ryanair passengers just days after releasing the full list of 40-50 cancelled flights each day for the next six weeks after ‘messing up’ scheduling holiday leave for pilots.

The low-cost airline is offering  €13,500 (£12,000)  tax-free bonuses  to its pilots to tempt them to give up days off and holiday and help get them out of the mess and avoid further cancellations.

But many of the pilots are rejecting the offer and instead  threatening to fulfil only  their basic contractual obligations. This would include refusing to work days off and not turning up for work early.

The pilots object to the ‘ambiguity’ of the offer’s conditons from Ryanair’s chief operations officer, Michael Hickey.

A draft letter from the pilots is circulating around the airline’s European bases calling for a ‘work to rule’. 

If pilots put their name to the letter they could be fired.

Many of Ryanair’s 4,200 pilots work as agency contractors. 

Seven hundred have already left the company this year and a  pilot told the Guardian newspaper, “They are not in a position to fire pilots because it would exacerbate their problem.”

Meanwhile, consumer group Which? is calling on Ryanair to automatically compensate passengers without them having to go through the hassle of making a claim.

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GROUNDED: The full list of Ryanair flights to / from Spain that have been cancelled so far

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