Ryanair feud escalates as pilots demand more cash, free coffee

A pilot revolt at Ryanair is threatening to undermine the penny-pinching credo that’s made the Dublin-based carrier Europe’s most valuable airline. A stand-off that’s simmered since mid-September, when the airline abruptly canceled more than 20,000 flights because of botched planning, escalated Friday after flight crew at London Stansted airport rejected an offer for increased pay. An ad-hoc council demanded salaries be doubled and extended across the airline’s European bases, according to a document sent to pilots on Sunday. The unofficial group, called the European Employee Representative Council, is seeking a salary increase to GBP150,000 for captains from GBP64,000 currently, and pledged to organize strikes if a deal can’t be reached. “This is a further tightening of the screw, further acknowledgement that Ryanair is on the backfoot,” said Padraic Regan, an aviation strategy professor at Trinity College Dublin. “The share price has been impacted, and shareholders are getting irked by that." The rogue pilots council, created after the bout of cancellations last month, is seeking to establish a collective bargaining group across the carrier’s 86 bases. The move is a challenge to the long-standing divide-and-conquer approach to labor relations at Ryanair, which has shunned company-wide employee groups. The demands, which would be retroactive to Sept. 1, include requiring Ryanair to cover the cost of uniforms, training, health care, on-board drinks and snacks, and ground transport and accommodation while working from an alternative base. The plan also calls for permanent contracts for pilots currently working as contractors and would grant shares in the company tied to seniority.<br/>