Airlines Ryanair cuts Dublin based fleet by 20% for winter 2018

Ryanair’s board has decided to cut its Dublin based fleet by 20 percent, from 30 aircraft to 24 at most. 100 Dublin based pilots and 200 cabin crew members have received their 90 day protective notice. Employees will be offered transfer to Poland and possibly other bases in winter 2018 in order to minimise redundancies from October 28.

Ryanair Sun, Ryanair’s Polish charter airline is growing rapidly and profitably so that more aircraft will be offered to Polish tour operators to meet market needs. In the light of recent pilot and cabin crew strikes Ryanair has seen negative effects on high fare bookings and forward air fares.

 “We regret these base aircraft reductions at Dublin for Winter 2018, but the Board has decided to allocate more aircraft to those markets where we are enjoying strong growth (such as Poland), and this will result in some aircraft reductions and job cuts in country markets where business has weakened”, Ryanair’s COO Peter Bellew said.

Ryanair Sun entered service in April 2018 and operates five Boeing 737-800 for Polish tour operators. With the re-allocation of the formerly Dublin based aircraft Ryanair Sun will operate more than ten aircraft. Ryanair operates 450 aircraft from 87 bases across Europe