Ryanair pilots’ strike threatens more misery for passengers

Ryanair’s attempts to pull out of a tailspin could be hit by striking pilots leading to hundreds more flight cancellations and passenger misery, it emerged on Tuesday.

Pilots met yesterday in Dublin to consider some form of industrial action and meetings across other European bases, including in the UK, are expected this week.

If a formal ballot does not take place, pilots could call in sick en masse. This tactic was used by 250 Air Berlin pilots last week, forcing the airline to cancel more than 100 flights.

The threat of industrial action comes as Ryanair battles to ride out the storm surrounding its flight cancellations.

It has said these are necessary to give pilots leave and to sort out a problem created by new regulations which require it to change the way pilots’ annual flying hours are calculated.

Analysts following Ryanair have calculated that the impact of the costs is about £25 million, although the company has suggested its staff costs will permanently increase by between £20 million and £30 million.

For analysts and the airline, the big unknown is the reputational damage.

If passengers decide to boycott Ryanair, because of its unreliability and shoddy treatment of customers, then it will need to slash prices to tempt them back.

Damian Brewer, analyst at RBC, said rivals, like Vueling, had had to cut fares sharply to overcome a poor reputation.

“We see reputation damage beyond the direct cost,” the analyst said. Other airlines are hoping to take advantage of the chaos which has affected 400,000 passengers by taking out newspaper advertising for their seats.