BREAKING NEWS: Ryanair warns of 3,000 job losses due to the Covid-19 crisis

Ryanair said today that it would take at least two years for passenger demand to return to normal, which could result in the loss of up to 3,000 mainly pilot and cabin crew jobs at the airline.

THE airline is also looking to implement pay cuts of up to 20 per cent as well as the closure of a number of aircraft bases across Europe until traffic recovers. It added that job cuts and pay cuts will also be extended to the airline’s head office and back-office teams.

In the Covid-19 market update today, Ryanair said it would ground more than 99 per cent of its flights until July and said it had begun negotiations with Boeing about cutting the number of aircraft deliveries over the next 24 months.

Ryanair said that its first-quarter passenger numbers of less than 150,000 passengers will be 99.5 per cent behind its forecast of 42.4 million passengers.

It said that while some return to flight services is expected in the months from July to September, it expects to carry no more than 50 per cent of its original traffic target of 44.6 million in its fiscal second quarter.

For the full year ended March 2021, Ryanair now expects to carry less than 100 million passengers, more than 35 per cent below its original 154 million targets.

The airline also said that it will challenge in the European Courts the “unlawful and discriminatory state aid” being granted to some European airlines.