Ryanair stirs up anger among pilots as it recruits for new UK arm

Ryanair has further stirred up anger among some of its pilots as it starts to recruit for a UK subsidiary established to protect the company against a no-deal Brexit. Pilots say the salaries offered at the subsidiary undermine Ryanair’s claims about how much they earn, which the airline insists would not be lower than the parent group and can be up to E200,000. Captains will receive basic pay of GBP105,000 and first officers GBP55,000 as part of “a small number” of secondments to Ryanair UK starting in January 2019. There are 3,000 Ryanair pilots at its 14 UK bases. “There will be a lot of unhappy guys. Pay is well below what Ryanair keep banging on about (E200,000),” one Ryanair pilot said. Ryanair says on its corporate recruitment website that it offers “industry leading pay of up to E200,000 pa [per annum] as captain” and reiterated that figure in response to a Financial Times question. Brian Strutton, general secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), added: “It is unclear why Ryanair thinks it needs to second existing UK pilots into its new UK [subsidiary]. This is potentially confusing, inflexible and bureaucratic.”<br/>