Ryanair still operating with half normal number of standby pilots

Ryanair is still operating with about half the number of standby pilots it would normally rely on for its 2,000 flights a day, despite taking its abrupt decision to cancel flights for up to 400,000 passengers over the next six weeks. CE Michael O’Leary said Tuesday that the number of pilots on standby had fallen to 20-30 a day in early September, compared with its typical cover of 200. Its move to cancel up to 2,100 flights over the next six weeks has seen the number of standby pilots rise to more than 100 a day. “The problem was the first week in September it looked like we were running with standby coverage of 20-30 pilots a day and that wasn’t enough,” said Mr O’Leary. “The weekend before last, we were cancelling flights, we were running out of duty hours, we were taking big flight delays . . . that’s why we said we wouldn’t go through a second weekend like that.” O’Leary was forced to apologise on Monday after passengers around Europe vented their fury on social media over the decision to cancel 50 flights a day starting on Saturday and running through October. Ryanair’s CE blamed its rostering system for failing to warn the airline that it did not have enough pilots on standby if there were unexpected problems, such as air traffic control strikes or bad weather. He said the airline was working out what the minimum number of standby pilots should be. It is also in the process of buying back leave from pilots.<br/>