Ryanair has denied that its pilot numbers are falling or that its punctuality has suffered.
The airline was responding to claims by unofficial union the Ryanair Pilot Group that numbers of flight crew are quitting the carrier for better-paying Gulf airlines and the fast-expanding budget carrier Norwegian.
On the eve of Ryanair’s annual meeting today, the carrier rejected the unofficial union’s assertions, reported in the Times.
The pilot group claimed that flight crew numbers are down, summer-on-summer, by 400, or more than 10%, at an airline that is expanding its operations.
The group claimed that many pilots’ 900 maximum annual flying hours will be used up by January, two months before Ryanair’s operational year ends.
Ryanair told the newspaper: “There have been no crew or manning shortages this summer. Nor were there any crew-related cancellations at all. Annual turnover of pilots is less than 10%, which is normal for us in recent years.”
The airline cited its annual report, which showed pilot numbers up marginally at 2,665 at the end of its year in March.
It said: “Ryanair punctuality this summer continues to be well ahead of others, like easyJet and British Airways. The biggest cause of cancellations was French and Italian air traffic control strikes.”