The thred has lost all balance as has much of the reporting of this issue in Ryanair. As real pilots who fly actual commercial aircraft in mainline airlines know there are weekly issues - some serious and not so serious. But Ryanair sadly will be targeted not due to its size - but as "when you live by the sword you will die by the sword."
I asked a grumpy PB in STN on Friday about the rumour reported in the UK Times as a fact that "100 pilots had resigned in the last month". He laughed and shuffled a spreadsheet and said less than 10 Capts and a few more FOS were leaving in the next 12 weeks. I believe that.
The REPA people have run a brilliant campaign to discredit and spin to the UK and Irish media over the last 10 days with leaked memos and supposedly authoritative advice on FTL's and rosters.
I think we all fool ourselves on this. The public will still fly with Ryanair, the stockmarket will still support Ryanair, MOL will just have an even more entrenched view on pilots pay and the only people who will suffer in all this spin are the collective Ryanair pilot's reputations. I feel very bitter as as a Ryanair pilot that a small number of Aer Lingus Union Reps and their spin have caused me to get nasty questions and innuendo about me and my work at Ryanair during social functions over this past weekend.