PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Ryanair Captains on £45,000 per year !!!
Old 23rd Feb 2011, 11:45
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Piltdown Man
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
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Aiminghigh - Your sentiments are to be applauded but I'm afraid what you suggest is not possible, neither legally or practically. From what I understand, many RYR pilots are not actually employed by RYR at all. Many work via an agency or a local RYR subsidiary. Their contracts vary by country and location and whim and each "contract" has differing terms, conditions and associated national employment law. In most countries, to strike you have to be in a union and that is difficult if you are self-employed. Then you have other problems. The UK directly employed contract guys wouldn't be able to support any colleagues, even if they had union recognition as that is illegal. And so on.

It is important to remember that Mr O'Leary's pilots are as loyal to him as he is to them. Neither owe each other. So when he doesn't pay the going rate, they'll leave. Currently the filthy Pikey has the biggest stick but history has a way of swinging back and forth, so when he has to count on loyalty, goodwill and team spirit his business will be totally and absolutely stuffed.

The same for his passengers. As long as it's (considered to be) cheap, they'll fly. Costs are now so tightly controlled that he becomes vulnerable to fuel price moves. I'm sure dealing with EU consumer organisations will take up an ever increasing amount of management time. Think about how much positive PR and news reportage he gets? Positive events such as the excellent piece of flying following multiple birdstrikes tend to be over-looked. The media is very negative towards RYR so if there is an unpleasant run of events, he might well find it difficult to recover his operation. And imagine being in management there. The feral scum he employs has to have very thick skins because they have to spend all day fighting the rest of the planet.

Now compare RYR to AirBerlin! It would be interesting to see if "Goodwill" is an asset or a liability on a Ryanair balance sheet. Oh, and don't forget, who does Mr. O'Leary fly with on holiday? His airline or maybe someone else... Club World maybe?

€45K to fly for RYR - well you're mad if you take it, but if you have to feed the kids...
Piltdown Man is offline