Ryanair faces further industrial turbulence over the coming month as some pilots in the UK resume strike action for the next three days, while Spanish pilots are to strike for five days later this month.
However, newly appointed Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson warned that industrial action would only make matters worse, and accused some unions of being intent on causing more uncertainty by calling strikes, rather than working with the airline.
Ryanair pilots in Britain have commenced a three-day strike in a dispute over issues including pay, pensions, maternity benefits and loss of licence insurance.
Directly employed Ryanair pilots belonging to the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) already held two days of strike action last month after the UK courts refused to grant the airline an injunction banning the union from taking industrial action.
Ryanair would normally carry around 160,000 passengers a day in and out of the UK.
In a statement, BALPA said the strike action had been "strongly supported" by members, and had forced Ryanair to engage contractors and bring in foreign crews to run its operation.
It said it was pleased that the action had disrupted Ryanair while having minimal impact on the public.
BALPA said Ryanair had refused to attend the UK conciliation body ACAS to negotiate a settlement.
BALPA General Secretary Brian Strutton said he hoped this second round of walk outs would signal the resolve of their members, adding that the union wanted to ensure the workforce was entitled to benefits seen in other aviation companies.
Ryanair has accused the pilots of seeking unreasonable pay demands, claiming pilots earning around £170,000 a year are demanding a pay rise of over £200,000.
However, the BALPA General Secretary said that despite reports of "severely inflated" pay demands, BALPA had not had the chance to ask for a specific percentage pay rise - but was seeking a consistent and transparent pay structure, adequate pension provision, loss of licence insurance and better maternity benefits.
Meanwhile, Ryanair pilots in Spain are to strike for five days this month in protest at the closure of four bases there, threatening the jobs of 512 people, including 120 pilots.
According to the Spanish union SEPLA, no redeployment has been proposed.
The strikes will take place on 19, 20, 22, 27 and 29 September if mediation fails to resolve the issues in dispute.
Ryanair's Spanish cabin crew are also striking for ten days this month (1, 2, 6, 8, 13, 15, 20, 22, 27 and 29) over the base closures at Tenerife South, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Girona.
Reasons cited for the base closures include the delay in the delivery of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft, and recent poor financial results.
The airline has already indicated that it is considering making 900 of its 13,000 employees redundant.
In a message to staff on Twitter, incoming CEO Eddie Wilson said the problem was that the bases were closing - and the two sides had to try to find a way to preserve jobs.
However, he cautioned that would not be advanced by a strike.
He noted that when a strike is over, everybody comes back to work the next day but the parties still had to work out the problem.
In Ireland there are hopes that the dispute involving Ryanair pilots belonging to Fórsa/IALPA may see a resumption of mediation.
Last month the courts granted a temporary order to Ryanair preventing the union from proceeding with planned strike action.
Ryanair has said it did not anticipate any interruption to its flights to and from Spain today.
In a statement, the airline said that yesterday it completed more than 940 (98%) of its scheduled flights. The 12 cancellations which arose were due to a system failure at French Air Traffic Control affecting all airlines.
Ryanair said all its first wave of flights to and from Spain had departed this morning as scheduled.
The company said it remains open to negotiating with the SITCPLA and USO unions and urged them to return to talks instead of continuing with "unjustified" strikes.
It stressed that the closure of bases in Spain and the Canary Islands this winter due to delays in the delivery of the Boeing Max planes would not be reversed by what it described as "pointless" strikes.
As UK-based pilots belonging to BALPA commenced a three-day strike, Ryanair said it did not anticipate any strike-related disruptions to flights to and from UK airports.
It thanked the UK pilots who did not support BALPA's strike and had chosen to work.
