When Ryanair moved its entire operation from BGY to MXP in 2014 temporarily due to madatory runway works - all pilots and cabin crew got a memo officially changing their base to MXP to avoid any contractual obligation to provide accomodation or out of base allowances.
After letters and complaints some rooms were provided for a part of the crew. Not sure but i think you even should have had a room partner and needed to register for it long in advance (lucky for some maybe
)
Most crew however chose to use a company provided bus at 3:30 AM that would leave at the BGY crewroom before the early shift or around 10:30 AM on lates to operate a full roster out of MXP. (The bus each way depending on the traffic jams near milan took around 1,5h . )
Offical duty time started at EOBT minus 45 in the crewroom at MXP and ended with time on blocks.
Ryanair at the same time kept saying that its up to the individual to turn up at base well rested.
Most pilots took hotels at their own cost and we were all concerned about fatigue levels of our cabin crew, which was under extreme pressure. I personally witnessed when *actual* (depending on how you want to define it) duty times were exceeded for days in a row and some captains were not happy to fly with some of the crew due to fatigue.
Besides internal critique I filed two confidential reports with the IAA on this matter and the response was this;
Thank you for your communication regarding Ryanair’s plan to open a temporary Base in Malpensa while necessary works are being carried out in Bergamo. The Authority has reviewed Ryanair’s proposal and can confirm that they comply with the requirements of EU-OPS. The Authority would wish to point out that it does not have oversight responsibility for contractual issues.
Just so you see how much the real world cares about your commuting - it happens to be possible cause it puts flexibility to Ryanairs planning and under Ry(IAA) their flexibilty is well protected by their associated authority.
Since we all now know that it was legal and there were no incidents / accidents during the period , it must follow that everything was safe!
win win for all relevant parties (where the word relevant does certainly not apply to crew)