Ryanair says hundreds of jobs on the line over Brexit, Max delays

Bloomberg

Ryanair Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary told workers the budget airline needs 1,500 fewer pilots and cabin crew than originally envisaged amid a slump in earnings and delays to expansion plans forced by the grounding of Boeing Co’s 737 Max jetliner.
In a video message to staff seen by Bloomberg, O’Leary said the carrier has an excess of more than 500 pilots and about 400 flight attendants, and on top of that will need around 600 fewer people in those categories next summer than called for in previous recruitment plans.
A spokesman for Dublin-based Ryanair confirmed the video’s authenticity and declined to comment further. The carrier had about 5,500 pilot posts as of March, of which at least 10 percent appear to be at risk based on O’Leary’s comments. It employs about 9,000 flight attendants.
“We over the next couple of weeks will be doing our very best to minimise job losses, but some are unavoidable at this time,” O’Leary said. The Dublin-based carrier had already warned it would close some European bases and shrink others in response to the Max crisis, which has stalled a fleet upgrade, and concerns around Brexit, without indicating how many positions might go.
Ryanair posted the video after announcing a 21 percent drop in quarterly earnings hurt by higher fuel costs, faltering economies and a fare war.
In the address, an apologetic O’Leary tells staff that redundancies will be detailed by the end of August once the carrier has engaged with airports and unions, with cuts to be enforced in September and October and again after Christmas.
Shares of Ryanair pared earlier gains of as much as 2.7 percent, trading 2 percent higher at 9.67 euros in Dublin.
The high number of excess staff is in part due to a reduced level of employee churn, which the CEO described as having “dried up to effectively zero” in the wake of improved pay deals triggered by a unionisation drive.
Ryanair indicated that it would trim operations, saying it expected to get no more than 30 of the 58 Max jets due from Boeing by next summer. The upgraded version of the 737 workhorse was idled and deliveries halted following two fatal crashes in less than five months.