Ryanair crew photographed sleeping on airport floor in Malaga - but photo was staged, says airline

A photo of Ryanair cabin crew sleeping on the floor in Malaga Airport quickly circulated online after employees were stranded there on 13 October by Storm Leslie in Portugal.

However, new footage released by the airline shows the photo was staged.

A Ryanair spokesperson said in a statement: “This picture is clearly staged and no crew ‘slept on the floor’. Due to storms in Porto a number of flights diverted to Malaga and as this was a Spanish national holiday, hotels were fully booked.

“The crew spent a short period of time in the crew room before being moved to a VIP lounge, and returned to Porto the next day (none of the crew operated flights).”

Although transferred to another lounge, the 24 crew members were not provided with food or drink by the airline during this time and were forced to share eight chairs to try to get some sleep, claimed Portuguese union official Fernando Gandra, a former Ryanair cabin crew member himself.

“I’m not going to comment on whether it was staged or not,” he told the Irish Times. “Only the people who were there can make that statement.

“The only place they had available was the floor… The point is that Ryanair did not give their crews any place to rest.”

SNPVAC, the union that represents Portuguese airline crew, issued a statement, shared to Facebook group Ryanair Must Change.

It said: “Upon arrival to Malaga airport, the 24 crew (eight pilots and 16 cabin crew) were placed in a room, without the minimum rest facilities, where the crew that are based on that airport perform their briefings and where Ryanair has their Malaga offices.

“The 24 crew members were there from 1.30am until 6am (local time) without access to food, drinks and even a place to sit down, as there were only eight seats available for the 24 crew.

“They had no other choice, as the photo illustrates, than to attempt to rest on the room’s floor.

“Around 6am the 24 Crew members were placed in the airport lounge, where they stayed for more than four hours but still with no access to food or drinks.”

It added: “It is regrettable and inconceivable that, in the 21st century, we observe this kind of events where we can verify that Ryanair operates without any respect for their employees and their customers, who were also left stranded in the airport terminal, in the highly regulated aviation sector.”

Former Ryanair pilot Jim Atkinson, who has been vocal in his criticism of the low-cost airline, tweeted the picture, writing: “This is a Ryanair 737 crew based in Portugal, stranded in Malaga, Spain a couple of nights ago due to storms. They are sleeping on the floor of the Ryanair crew room. RYR is earning €1.25 billion this year but will not put stranded crews in a hotel for the night.”

Peter Bellew, Ryanair’s chief operations officer, replied: “Unfortunately all hotels were completely booked out in Malaga. The storm created huge damage in Portugal. Later after this the crew moved to VIP lounge. Apologies to the crew we could not find accommodation.”