Captains And First Officers Defecting To Rival Norwegian

Ryanair executives are "begging" pilots to return to the troubled airline after it was forced to cancel some 700,000 tickets because it had tampered with the pilot's holiday schedules.

The U.K. newspaper The Telegraph reports that many of the pilots have defected to rival low-cost carrier Norwegian, which has been denied by Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary. But he did admit that the airline needs to hire more flight crews. O'Leary said that Ryanair recently recruited 45 pilots in one day recently, bringing the total number of new hires to 860 for the year.

In an email provided to The Telegraph, Elaine Griffin , Ryanair's flight operations manager, has been asking pilots to return with the promise of more money and better working conditions.  

The carrier's pilots threatened mass walkouts over the work environment and the way scores of flight cancellations were handled. O'Leary initially said the pilots were "full of their own self-importance" ... but later apologized for the statement.

Norwegian said that about 140 pilots have switched to their airline in 2017.

In the email, Griffin told the pilots that the company has increased pay for Captains and First Officers by about 20 percent, and was working on the scheduling. She said that while there is still a lot of work to do, if the pilots wanted to talk about returning to Ryanair, "we would be delighted to hear from you.”

(Image from file)

FMI: Original Report