A group of around 60 cabin crew and pilots who work for Ryanair subsidiary Malta Air will be made redundant in a month, as part of cost-cutting efforts in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
In a letter sent to the staff, quoted by Times of Malta, the airline says that in order to try and “survive the COVID-19 crisis” there is an “unavoidable need for redundancies” at the Malta base.
MaltaToday and The Times reports the airline saying that the decision came after talks on “reasonable pay cuts”, mooted in the wake of the outbreak that resulted in fleets being grounded, failed. Pilots and cabin crew are being given a month’s notice of termination though they will not be made to work the notice period.
According to the letter, the payment for the month’s notice amounts to €1,489. Their last day of employment is listed as June 30.
MaltaToday reports Ryanair launched subsidiary airline Malta Air in 2019, operating out of Malta with a fleet of six aircraft that was expected to 10 over three years. The airline aimed to carry 5 million passengers in the first five years of operation.
The new airline took on the 62 routes Ryanair currently operates out of Malta, as well as registering over 50 other aircraft to Malta’s aircraft register.
The establishment of subsidiaries by Ryan Air in Austria, Poland and Malta were described as logical by The Economist, from the perspective that when they were set up, low-cost carriers have been slow to gain market share in German-speaking countries, where customer loyalty to national carriers is stronger than elsewhere.
In Malta, the logic was based on favourable employment laws which could have been the target. Ryanair planned to register 50 of its aircraft in the country, only 10 of which were to serve the local market.
Times of Malta / Corporate Dispatch / Economist / MaltaToday
