Ryanair confirms it will recognise pilot unions

Following its announcement last week, budget airline Ryanair confirmed on Tuesday that it will recognise pilot unions for the first time in its history and that it will meet with cabin crew unions, as it looks to avert a strike in the run-up to Christmas.

Last Friday, the airline said it had written to the pilot unions in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal inviting each of them to talks. It said it will recognise these unions as long as they establish committees of Ryanair pilots to deal with Ryanair issues, as Ryanair will not engage with pilots who fly for competitor airlines in Ireland or elsewhere.

"As Ryanair’s statement of Fri 15 Dec made clear, Ryanair is moving to recognise unions, starting this week with meetings with Irish, German and Portuguese pilot unions. It will lead on in the New Year to meetings with other EU pilot unions and cabin crew unions in due course as well."

The carrier said the decision to change its long-standing policy of not recognising unions was made in order to avoid any threat of disruption to its customers and flights over the Christmas period, as it called on pilot unions to cancel a planned strike on Wednesday.

Chief executive Michael O’Leary said last Friday: “Christmas flights are very important to our customers and we wish to remove any worry or concern that they may be disrupted by pilot industrial action next week.

“If the best way to achieve this is to talk to our pilots through a recognised union process, then we are prepared to do so, and we have written today to these unions inviting them to talks to recognise them and calling on them to cancel the threatened industrial action planned for Christmas week.

“Putting the needs of our customers first, and avoiding disruption to their Christmas flights, is the reason why we will now deal with our pilots through recognised national union structures and we hope and expect that these structures can and will be agreed with our pilots early in the New Year."

The news came ahead of Ryanair's meeting later in the day with Impact, the union representing Irish pilots.