Ryanair wants to close bases in Germany after refusing pay cut to pilots

Ryanair wants to close its base at Frankfurt-Hahn airport and is also threatening to take aircraft away from its bases at Berlin-Tegel and Düsseldorf at the end of the summer. Details on this will be revealed next week.

The airline is taking this step because German pilots are not willing to give up salary, reports news agency
Reuters
.

In a vote on a proposed pay cut, there was just no majority among German pilots. Ryanair wants to cut salaries because there is less demand for air travel due to the corona crisis.

‘We now need to take alternative measures to achieve savings, which unfortunately means closing bases and losing jobs,’ Europe’s largest low-cost carrier wrote in a leaked memo.
According to Ryanair, 70 percent of the company’s pilots would have already agreed to lower pay.

In Ireland, Ryanair bypassed the union and made individual agreements with the pilots.
The German trade union Vereinigung Cockpit says there is still hope for a solution.
The union continues to take issue with Ryanair’s condition that jobs will be guaranteed until March 2021, but that salaries will remain at a lower level until 2024. (Photo Shutterstock)