Yay or Nay Ryanair ?

[Billy The Fish]

Ryanair have dropped lucky with the Monarch collapse as they will be able to capitalise on the number of fully trained pilots looking for work now. They are training pilots at double the rate they were a month ago but those newbies still need three to four months flying before becoming competent. An influx of Monarch pilots, after training, is a much better option and IMO will prove to be a godsend to O'Leary.

Not that he deserves it.

 

[Terryhall]

A lot of the reporting on Ryanairs cancellations has suggested that, rather than a result of poor holiday planning as their own press releases would have you believe, it is that record numbers of Ryanair pilots have jumped ship to rival airlines this year where the pay and conditions are better. If that is true it's hard to believe that they would be first choice for a qualified pilot looking to move on after Monarch. (The fact that the Air Berlin closure hasn't had any effect on the Ryanair cancellations also suggests that at least their out of work pilots are not choosing Mr O'Leary to be their next employer...remains to be seen what Monarch pilots will do.)

 

[Terryhall]

Update - Ryanair suddenly offering significantly better pay and conditions to their pilots. An admission that this was a problem entirely of their own making perhaps?

 

[Billy The Fish]

It seems Virgin, Emirates, Etihad and even Easy Jet are courting the Monarch pilots with fast track training to secure their services. Also the Ryanair pilots I spoke to today are fuming about O'Leary's apologies and the offer he has made them carries so many stipulations and provisos that it would be virtually impossible to achieve.

They ain't happy.

 

[Bittners a Legend]

Unless I have misunderstood RyanAir can't recruit pilots from Monarch because Monarch flew Airbus and RyanAir fly Boeing?

 

[Billy The Fish]

It's quicker to cross train pilots with many flying hours under their belts than it is to train cadets.

 

[LOG]

When this all kicked off, one of the first things matey said was, don't fret, we're going to hire 150 pilots in the next two weeks. I'm no expert, but the first thing i thought was it can't be that easy to hire that many in such a short space of time, shirley? I mean, there can't be a very big queue at the Commercial Pilot section of the Job Centre.

 

[Terryhall]

The challenge O'Leary has is that he seems to be trying to appeal to the pilots sense of "the team" and belonging to a Ryanair family as being a reason for them to accept a package that may not be as attractive as they could get elsewhere. At the same time he is telling them that they are "the best in the world".

To my (objective, non-aviation industry) mind, this is surely going to backfire. Firstly because loyalty to an employer typically only goes as far as the employer's loyalty to the employee (and Ryanair don't seem to score highly here) - secondly, telling someone they are the best in the world at what they do, and simultaneously asking them to accept a less-than-best-in-the-world pay package, is a very hard sell I would think (although if anyone can pull that one off, it's O'Leary.)