Ryanair to axe Hahn base after pilots reject cost-savings deal

Ryanair is set to close its base at Frankfurt Hahn airport in November as part of wider cuts after failing to reach agreement on cost savings with German pilots. In a company memo sent to the airline’s Germany-based pilots, the low-cost carrier says that having been informed by the Vereinigung Cockpit union that pilots had rejected proposed cost-savings, it “must move” on alternative measures to deliver savings. These measures include the planned closure of its long-standing Hahn base - the airline’s second mainland Europe base when it opened in February 2002 - from the start of November. It also warns its Berlin-Tegel and Weeze airport near Dusseldorf bases “are likely to close before” the start of the winter 2020 season. It will issue an update on this in the next week. It further adds that it is “over-crewed” for pilots at its Frankfurt, Berlin Schonefeld and Cologne bases and that once the various base closures have been addressed, it will deal with these surpluses.<br/>