Ryanair will close its Frankfurt base in Germany in the autumn after pilots refused to agree to a pay cut, the airline says.
Other closures in Germany are expected to follow.
The airline is carrying out a restructuring plan involving 3,000 job cuts to cushion the shock of the pandemic.
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VC, a German pilots’ union, rejected in a majority vote the company’s proposal to accept a 20% pay cut for four years. “VC have voted for job cuts and base closures when they could have preserved all the jobs,” Ryanair reacted.
“We must move on with alternative measures to deliver savings, which regrettably will mean base closures and dismissals," they said.
The company did not specify how many jobs were affected by the closure of its Frankfurt base, which will take effect on 1 November. Ryanair adds that the closures of its bases in Berlin Tegel and Düsseldorf are now likely to take place before the winter.
In a press release, VC said that Ryanair’s proposals would have been harmful to the pilots’ working conditions and considered the guarantees of job preservation to be insufficient.
Unlike their German counterparts, Ryanair’s British pilots have agreed to wage cuts of 20%, which should enable them to save 260 of the 330 jobs threatened.
The Brussels Times
