Ryanair will start recognising pilot unions to avoid massive Christmastime strikes

The low-cost airline on Friday said that it had written to the pilot unions in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal inviting each of them to talks to recognise the pilot unions

‘Christmas flights are very important to our customers,’ said CEO Michael O’Leary (AFP/Getty)

Ryanair has said that it has agreed to change its longstanding policy and recognise pilot unions in a slew of countries across Europe, including the UK, to avoid widespread disruption for travellers over the crucial Christmas period.

The low-cost airline on Friday said that it had written to the pilot unions in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal inviting each of them to talks to recognise these unions as the representative body for pilots of Ryanair.

In turn, it said that it was calling on these pilot unions to call off the threatened industrial action planned for Wednesday, 20 December.

“Christmas flights are very important to our customers and we wish to remove any worry or concern that they may be disrupted by pilot industrial action next week,” said chief executive Michael O’Leary.

“If the best way to achieve this is to talk to our pilots through a recognised union process, then we are prepared to do so, and we have written today to these unions inviting them to talks to recognise them and calling on them to cancel the threatened industrial action planned for Christmas week,” he said.

Mr O’Leary said that recognising unions would be a “significant change for Ryanair” but that the airline had “delivered radical change before”.

Since it was founded in 1985, Ryanair has resisted unionisation. But in September the giant airline abruptly cancelled 20,000 flights because of botched pilot rostering. Amid rumours that flight crew were leaving Ryanair in large numbers, it promised pilots better pay in a bid to retain them.

With pilots aware of their increased industrial muscle, there have been growing demands for the airline to recognise trade unions. A series of strikes had been threatened, and this move is intended to defuse the situation.