Ryanair subsidiary Malta Air starts COVID-19 redundancies of pilots, cabin crew

Redundancies have started at Ryanair’s Malta Air base in Malta, with COVID-19 restrictions now forcing the airline to lay off workers. 

The airline has been grounded for the past three months. 

MaltaToday is informed Malta Air informed employees it would propose a 10% salary cut for the next five years due to projections showing the company being unable to recover in the short-term. 

Sources said around 20 pilots and 40 cabin crew will be made redundant from the full complement of 179 pilots and cabin crew. 

In a memo sent to employees by Malta Air’s human resources department on Friday, workers were told of “unavoidable need for redundancies” due to the COVID-19 crisis. 

Employees had already received a similar memo two days earlier on Wednesday 27 May. 

“We regret to inform you that due to the COVID-19 crisi sand the failure of our recent discussions with the ERCs to agree reasonable pay cuts, we need to make significant cost-reductions and implement urgent restructuring to protect the viability of our Maltese base,” Malta Air told employees made redundant. 

Terminations will come into effect from 30 June, with a one-month notice that will be paid in full settlement of claims. 

At the start of May, Ryanair announced plans to return to 40% of normal flight schedules from 1 July, subject to government restrictions being lifted.  Ryanair said it would operate a daily flight schedule of almost 1,000 flights, restoring 90% of its pre-COVID-19 route network. 

Ryanair launched subsidiary airline Malta Air in 2019, operating out of Malta with a fleet of six aircraft that was expected to 10 over three years. The airline aimed to carry 5 million passengers in the first five years of operation. 

The new airline took on the 62 routes Ryanair currently operates out of Malta, as well as registering over 50 other aircraft to Malta’s aircraft register.

Ryanair Holdings plc reported a full year profit of €1 billiion compared to €885m in 2018. Most of Ryanair’s fleet was grounded from mid-March by EU Government flight bans and restrictions. These groundings reduced March and full-year traffic by over five million guests and cut 2020 profits by over €40 million.