Ryanair has told staff it is preparing to announce job losses in the next few weeks as it has ‘more staff than needed’.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary told employees that the airline has 900 more staff than required.
He said: “We already have a surplus of over 500 pilots and some 400 cabin crew, because resignations have dried up to effectively zero since January of 2019.”
Mr O’Leary added: “We will need about 600 less pilots and cabin crew for summer 2020.”
The airline boss said the company would begin briefing staff and unions “in the next week or two”, but the final decisions about job losses are not likely to be made before the end of August.
Mr O’Leary blamed the planned cuts to flights next summer as a result of the grounding of its Boeing 737 Max fleet. He said that the job cuts will take place around the end of September and after Christmas.
Ryanair had a 21% fall on profits for the three months to the end of June. It said the average price of a ticket had fallen 6% as the company struggled with higher fuel prices and a fare war.
The airline had an average of 14,000 flight staff in the year to March 31, according to its annual report.
