Ryanair keeps big investors onside after rocky 2017

Several institutional investors are backing Ryanair to bounce back from a pilot rostering mess-up and a decision to recognise unions that jolted confidence in the airline. The mishandling of staff holidays caused thousands of flight cancellations, angered passengers and helped pilots to secure union recognition for the first time in Ryanair's 32-year history, sending the share price down 9% in one day in December. The holiday rota errors were a rare serious slip-up by CE O'Leary. O'Leary had said hell would freeze over before he would welcome unions into Ryanair. The company now says dialogue with organised labour will help the business. Analysts say it will inflate its costs and could reduce the flexibility that helped it steal chunks of business from traditional airlines. <br/>