Ryanair in Copenhagen ... or not
Ryanair has presented what it calls its final word to the Danish cabin attendant and pilot unions: They have point blank refused to even entertain the idea of a collective agreement.
The unions have replied by announcing a conflict, which means all unionized cabin attendants and pilots in Denmark will be banned from taking up employment. It gets worse, much worse, for Ryanair though. All the major unions of CPH airport have pledged to back up the cabin attendant and pilot unions, and since every single handling, fueling and catering company in CPH is fully unionized, that means their aircraft might land and taxi to gate, but no ground handling at all will take place. This is assuming Ryanair will be able to find a handling agent at all; so far none of them are willing to meet the price point demanded by Ryanair. On the contrary, they have been advised what the prices are, take it or leave it. Reason being is rather simple: Their staff are unionized, and they are unable to turn a profit at the price RYR is offering due to the cost of labour. A ramp agents costs around USD 30/hour in CPH, inclusive of pension and social charges.
Unfortunately for MoL, CPH is home to some of the best organized, and best financially padded, unions in Europe. The word from them is simple: They sign a collective agreement with their cabin attendants and pilots based in CPH, or they bugger off. As the signing of a collective agreement in CPH will have widespread ramifications for their entire European operation, it is highly unlikely Ryanair will succumb to the pressure.
Ryanair plan to base 1 aircraft in CPH as of March, increasing to 4 aircraft during the course of 2015, all crewed with staff based in Denmark.