Ryanair is set to make as many as 900 employees redundant in the coming weeks, according to reports.
The Irish low-cost carrier’s chief executive officer Michael O’Leary said the move is necessary as part of its growth strategy and “unavoidable” as they have too many pilots and cabin crew.
Reports claim O’Leary detailed the plans in a video message to workers, where he said redundancies would be announced by the end of August, although he did not put an exact number on the losses.
He said the LCC now had a excess of more than 500 pilots and 400 flight attendants and would also need 600 fewer cabin crew by summer 2020.
The move comes after Ryanair announced a 21 per cent fall in quarterly profits on Monday as its finances have been affected by the grounding of its Boeing 737 Max fleet which has caused it to cut its flight schedule over the summer.
Ryanair also said on Monday in its annual report, that O’Leary’s pay would be cut 50 per cent to €500,000 (£457,000) and his bonus would be reduced to a maximum of the same amount.
However, he has been awarded an additional 10 million shares – on top of the five million he already owns which could lead to a substantial windfall in future, if he can improve the airline’s performance over the next five years.
O’Leary penned a new five-year contract in February to remain group chief executive of Ryanair, Europe’s biggest airline by the number of passengers carried.
