Ryanair cancels 250 flights across Europe on Friday
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Tens of thousands of Ryanair passengers across Europe face disruption on Friday after strikes cancelled 250 flights.
On Thursday, German pilots joined striking pilots in the Netherlands and Belgium adding another 100 to the 150 cancellations already in the pipeline.
Cabin crews in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain are also stopping work in a row over contracts and conditions.
So far, relatively few flights to and from the UK seem to have been affected.
The travel editor of the Independent, Simon Calder, said Stansted Airport, which is Ryanair's biggest European hub, had seen about 20 flights cancelled. These were mostly to and from Germany.
He said eight Manchester services - to and from Barcelona, Berlin, Faro and Malaga - have been grounded, as well as flights from Birmingham to Lanzarote and East Midlands to Malaga.
Standards
Unions want staff to be given contracts in the countries where they live, rather than under Irish law.
Chief executive Michael O'Leary said the company had written to unions offering to move all staff to local contracts, which made the strike action "unnecessary".
However, the Dutch pilots union said it had only verbally offered its members local contracts and had refused to put the offer in writing.
Joost Van Doesburg, of the VNV union, said his members also wanted pensions in line with Dutch standards, and firmer guarantees on sick pay.
Analysis:
Tom Burridge, BBC transport correspondent
Meet with Michael O'Leary and beyond the bullish facade, this multi-faceted dispute is more complex and potentially damaging than he is willing to let on.
The roots of today's row stretch back to autumn last year when Ryanair 400,000 Ryanair passengers had their flights cancelled.
The airline did not have enough pilots to honour its schedule. It was in Mr O'Leary's words "a mess of our own making".
The subsequent decision to start recognising pilot and cabin crew unions around Europe was a multinational can-of-worms.
Some deals with some unions in some countries have been done.
But overall there is plenty to resolve and incendiary language, on both sides, is the flavour of the day.
Ryanair this week signed deals with cabin crew unions in Italy to provide employment contracts under Italian law and agreed to arbitration with the union representing its German pilots.
The European Commission said Ryanair employees should have contracts in the countries where they live rather than in Ireland, where its planes are registered.
EU social affairs commissioner Marianne Thyssen told Mr O'Leary at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday that EU rules on employment of air crews were based on where workers left in the morning and returned in the evening - and not where aircraft were registered.
"Respecting EU law is not something over which workers should have to negotiate, nor is it something which can be done differently from country to country," Ms Thyssen said.
"The internal market is not a jungle - it has clear rules on fair labour mobility and worker protection. This is not an academic debate, but about concrete social rights of workers."
Ryanair has traditionally employed a large proportion of its staff under Irish law, which unions say inconveniences workers and affects their ability to access social security benefits.
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Ryanair said the vast majority of its 2,400 flights on Friday would be unaffected, with only 35,000 of 450,000 passengers experiencing disruption.
Passengers whose flight have been cancelled were contacted by email and text message on Tuesday to advise them of their options.
"We sincerely apologise to those customers affected by these unnecessary strikes on Friday which we have done our utmost to avoid," Ryanair said.
Rethink
It has rejected calls by the UK's Civil Aviation Authority to compensate passengers whose flights have been cancelled, claiming they were caused by "competitor airline crew, unions and lobby groups" and were therefore "extraordinary circumstances".
However, Coby Benson, a lawyer specialising in flight delay compensation at Bott and Co, said Ryanair's arguments did not comply with the precedent set in April by a case in Germany.
Last month, Ryanair pilots across Europe staged a coordinated 24-hour strike to push their demands for better pay and conditions, plunging tens of thousands of passengers into transport chaos at the height of the summer holiday season.
In July, strikes by cockpit and cabin crew disrupted 600 flights in Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, affecting 100,000 travellers.
Another indication of the company's rethink on contracts came on Thursday when it announced two new bases in France. They will be the first in the country since it closed Marseille in early 2011 after being sued for employing French workers on Irish contracts.
It will also open another base at Bordeaux for summer 2019 and had another four under consideration.
Two aircraft will be based at both Marseille and Bordeaux and will offer a total of 64 routes and handle 3.5 million passengers a year.
Ryanair klager til EU over andre selskabers ansatte
Ryanair mener, at kabinepersonale fra konkurrerende selskaber står bag strejker i blandt andet Spanien og Portugal, og har indgivet klage til EU-Kommissionen.
Mens Ryanair på fredag rammes af endnu en strejke blandt sit kabinepersonale i Spanien, Belgien, Holland, Portugal, Italien og Tyskland og derfor på forhånd har aflyst 150 flyvninger, beskylder selskabet nu kabinepersonale fra konkurrerende flyselskaber for at organisere strejkerne.
Ryanair mener ligeledes, at både kabinepersonale og piloter fra andre selskaber lægger hindringer i vejen for, at Ryanair kan indgå overenskomstaftaler med sit flyvende personale i en række lande. Det er Ryanair for nyligt er lykkedes med i Italien, ligesom selskabet har indgået såkaldte anerkendelsesaftaler med fagforeninger i en række lande – heriblandt Irland, Storbritannien og Tyskland.
Ryanair: Norwegian- og TAP-personale bag strejker
Ryanair har på den baggrund indgivet en klage til EU-Kommissionen om unfair konkurrence. I klagen kræver Ryanair en undersøgelse af ”konkurrencebegrænsende adfærd hos visse konkurrerende flyselskaber, fagforeninger og lobbygrupper, der aktivt hindrer Ryanairs forhandlinger med sine piloter/kabinepersonale og organiserer gentagne strejker i bestræbelserne på at skade Ryanairs forretning og kundernes tillid til fordel for Ryanairs konkurrenter”.
Ryanair har på den baggrund indgivet en klage til EU-Kommissionen om unfair konkurrence. I klagen kræver Ryanair en undersøgelse af ”konkurrencebegrænsende adfærd hos visse konkurrerende flyselskaber, fagforeninger og lobbygrupper, der aktivt hindrer Ryanairs forhandlinger med sine piloter/kabinepersonale og organiserer gentagne strejker i bestræbelserne på at skade Ryanairs forretning og kundernes tillid til fordel for Ryanairs konkurrenter”.
Ifølge Ryanair har blandt andet Norwegians kabinepersonale i Alicante i Spanien været med til at organisere strejker, og det samme har kabinepersonale fra TAP i Portugal, hævder Ryanair.
Konspiration fra andre selskaber
Samtidig mener Ryanair, at selskabets forhandlinger om overenskomster bliver forstyrret i blandt andet Sverige, hvor pilotforeningerne har nægtet at forhandle med Ryanair, medmindre en pilot fra Braathens blev inviteret med til forhandlingerne.
Samtidig mener Ryanair, at selskabets forhandlinger om overenskomster bliver forstyrret i blandt andet Sverige, hvor pilotforeningerne har nægtet at forhandle med Ryanair, medmindre en pilot fra Braathens blev inviteret med til forhandlingerne.
“Vi har gjort reelle fremskridt med fagforeningerne og vores ansatte i mange EU-lande, siden vi blev enige om at anerkende fagforeninger i december 2017. Imidlertid hindres lignende fremskridt i visse lande, især i Portugal, Spanien, Tyskland, Holland og Sverige, af indblanding fra konkurrerende flyselskaber og kabinepersonale, der konspirerer om at opfordre til gentagne og unødige strejker,” siger Ryanairs koncernchef Michael O’Leary.
Ifølge Michael O’Leary støtter flertallet af Ryanairs piloter og kabinepersonale ikke de gentagne strejker og har fortsat deres arbejde som normalt.
Med de 150 aflyste flyafgange fredag den 28. september bliver lidt over seks procent af Ryanairs i alt 2.400 planlagte flyvninger fredag påvirket af den varslede strejke. Ved pilotstrejken den 10. august, hvor piloter i fem lande nedlagde arbejdet, måtte det irske lavprisflyselskab aflyse 396 flyafgange.
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