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Ryanair has built its reputation on reliability, which could be marred by strikes during the summer. Photograph: Arnulf Stoffel/AFP/Getty Images
Ryanair has built its reputation on reliability, which could be marred by strikes during the summer. Photograph: Arnulf Stoffel/AFP/Getty Images

Ryanair strikes: 'Their brand is built on being reliable bastards'

This article is more than 5 years old

How much pain will a summer of industrial action inflict on Europe’s largest airline?

When Ryanair flies into a storm, it usually does so on a course charted with meticulous precision by chief executive Michael O’Leary.

The boss of Europe’s largest airline has an unrivalled talent for generating publicity through controversy, adhering to the dogma that it doesn’t matter what people say about Ryanair as long as they say Ryanair often enough.

Now the airline is facing a summer of disruption, with pilots and cabin crew set to go out on strike at the worst possible time – summer holiday season.

Pilots in Ireland will down joysticks on 12 July, while crew in Spain, Italy, Portugal and Belgium, will walk out for 48 hours on 25 and 26 July.

“The challenge is that it’s the peak season and we don’t know if the strikes will go ahead or to what extent,” said John Strickland, director of independent transport consultancy JLS Consulting.

“That’s as much a challenge for Ryanair in planning solutions as it is for people travelling.”

Strickland said Ryanair would look to shuffle its crew around to minimise the impact and possibly ask customers to rebook on different flights.

“It’s hard to gauge the magnitude of disruption and you have to put it into the context of Ryanair’s vast operations. But the scale of Ryanair’s operations also means that quite a significant number of people could be affected,” he said.

One concern for Ryanair is that any cancellation comes with the memory of last winter’s travails still relatively fresh. Thousands of passengers had their flights cancelled due to a blunder in the airline’s staffing roster.

Any further disruption could start to crystallise an image of Ryanair as a risky bet that makes paying an extra 10% or so for another airline seem like a good insurance policy.

“Their brand is built on being reliable bastards,” said Dan Gavshon Brady, a strategist at brand consultancy Wolff Olins. “What the strikes threaten to do is question the reliability. They’re more resilient than others because they’ve never promised anything more than no-frills but deliver on what they promise.

“But that also leaves them less margin for error, so when you get problems it threatens to affect your brand.”

At one stage last year, it looked as if Ryanair might avert any escalation of tension with its labour force.

In a reversal of the airline’s decades-old policy, O’Leary agreed to recognise trade unions, something he has once claimed would be less preferable than cutting off his own hands.

It seemed like a watershed moment, albeit one forced by the airline’s staffing bungle.

The mistake had left Ryanair desperately short of experienced pilots, giving them the whip hand over a management team keen to limit flight cancellations.

O’Leary’s subsequent damascene conversion into a reluctant trade unionist was reminiscent of his 2013 vow to start being nicer to passengers – one made by necessity, through gritted teeth.

A little more than six months later and unions representing both pilots and crew say recognitionhas not developed into engagement with their grievances.

This time, while pilots in Ireland remain dissatisfied and plan to strike on 12 July, it is cabin crew who are most aggrieved.

They have long complained of poor pay and working conditions and meagre employment rights as a result of Ryanair’s model of employing them via third-party agencies.

As the Guardian revealed last year, they are also subjected to disciplinary proceedings and public shaming if they do not hit sales targets designed to help Ryanair flog more scratchcards and perfume.

Multiple crew unions, assisted by the the International Transport Workers’ Federation, have delivered a list of 34 demands to the company.

The implication is that more strikes will follow unless the company comes to the negotiating table.

“The onus is now on Ryanair,” said ITF general secretary Stephen Cotton.

“Ensure that workers get the treatment they deserve, or more national unions may decide that strikes are the only way to make the company listen.

“Ryanair has started to change, but we believe the culture at the top needs to change too in order to deliver on the promises it has made.

“The close-knit corporate governance model that has been a feature of the company thus far is no longer appropriate for a major airline. An increase in independent representation on the board would give us greater confidence that Ryanair is serious about a new approach.”

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But Ryanair’s rapid growth and financial success remain core strengths and not everybody is convinced it will see the need to change.

Chris Tarry, founder of aviation consultancy Ctaira, said: “Whilst this changes the rules of engagement at Ryanair the fact is that it starts from a position of the lowest costs and is consistently the most profitable airline.

“There are different dynamics and flexing of muscles by labour but it’s all clearly manageable.”

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