Ryanair to axe up to 3,000 jobs as it warns over slow recovery

Ryanair is preparing to cut up to 15% of its 19,000 workforce as it becomes the latest airline to warn that the aviation industry faces a slow recovery from the upheaval wrought by coronavirus. The carrier said it expected it would take at least two years for a return to last year’s levels of passenger demand and pricing, as it laid out plans to cut further costs. CE Michael O’Leary said his outlook on the recovery had changed over the past week in light of the E9b bailout Air France-KLM had won from the French and Dutch governments, and the state aid Lufthansa is expected to receive. He said the “whole competitive market has now been completely turned on its head”. “The weakest airlines going into the crisis — Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, Alitalia — who were going to in normal circumstances have to restructure and retrench are now going to be enormously enriched with this state aid doping. I think what we are facing now is that . . . they’ll be able to make life very difficult for the well-run airlines like ourselves, BA and easyJet.” O’Leary said Ryanair had to respond by downsizing the airline for the next 12 months. “Unless we have materially lower costs for the next 12-24 months, we won’t be able to operate successfully in a market where air fares are going to be materially lower.”<br/>