Ryanair has confirmed more than 250 job cuts at offices around Europe ahead of 3,000 pilot and cabin crew losses and pay cuts.
Staff will go from positions in Dublin, Stansted, Madrid and Wroclaw in the face of Covid-19 flight groundings.
The job losses are being made through a combination of ending probation and fixed term contracts, resignations and redundancies.
“These people will not be required to return to work on 1 June, when the Ryanair offices reopen, due to the substantial decline in traffic the Ryanair Group Airlines is facing in 2020,” Europe’s largest no-frills carrier said.
Further announcements on Ryanair crew job losses and pay cuts are expected before the end of May “in the light of further and on-going flight restrictions”.
Less than 1% of normal flight schedules are operating during April, May and June, and only 40% of regular flights will operate in July.
Ryanair now expects to carry less than 100 million annual passengers, 35% down on the target of more than 155 million for the year ended March 2021.
People director Darrell Hughes said: “This is a very painful time for Ryanair, our crews and our people supporting operations from our Dublin, Stansted, Madrid and Wroclaw offices.
“While we expect to re-open our offices from 1 June, we will not require the same number of support team members in a year when we will carry less than 100 million passengers, against an original budget of 155 million.
”Regrettably, we will now have a small number of compulsory redundancies in Dublin, Stansted, Madrid and Wroclaw to right size our support teams for a year when we will carry less than 100 million passengers due to the Covid-19 crisis.
“These job losses were communicated to individual team members this week, and they will not be returning to work in our Dublin, Stansted, Madrid or Wroclaw offices when they reopen on 1 June next.
“We are continuing to meet our pilot and cabin crew unions across Europe to finalise up to 3,000 job cuts and 20% pay cuts as we return to approximately 40% of our normal flight schedules from July onwards.
“Ryanair is also facing intense price competition across Europe as we are forced to compete with flag carrier airlines who have received over €30 billion in unlawful state aid subsidies from their governments, and who will be able to engage in below low cost selling for many years with the benefit of this illegal state aid.”