Irish airline Ryanair has announced it will be shutting down its base at Frankfurt Hahn Airport by November, after failing to come to an agreement with German pilots over their pay.
The airline announced in a memo to staff that its other German bases, at Berlin Tegel and Dusseldorf Airport, were also “likely” at risk of being shut down over the next few months.
“We must move on with alternative measures to deliver savings, which regrettably will mean base closures and dismissals,” Ryanair said in the staff memo.
Ryanair is yet to announce exactly how many jobs will be affected by the upcoming changes in Germany, however staff have been informed they will receive information about their notice period later this week.
According to German airline union Vereinigung Cockpit, Ryanair put forward a deal that would only offer job security to current staff until March 2021, while enforcing pay cuts until 2024.
The union said that “less than half of pilots were in favour of accepting” the deal put forward by the airline.
“We believe the agreement would have the potential to harm the entire pilot community across Germany,” it said.
The union is still holding onto hope that a deal can be made despite the public decision.
Ryanair has said that the German union’s decision not to accept its conditions is “bizarre”.
“We made it clear throughout negotiations that if the vote was unsuccessful, then the next step would have to be dismissals,” it said.
“It is bizarre that the union canvassed against the deal knowing full well that the result would be base closures and job losses.”
Meanwhile, Ryanair’s pilots and cabin crew in the UK recently voted in favour of pay cuts, in order to reduce the number of job losses across the UK network.
