Ryanair strike: No disruption for UK flights as pilots begin three-day walkout
Pilots employed by Ryanair in the UK are in dispute over a range of issues from pensions to maternity benefits
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Your support makes all the difference.British pilots employed by Ryanair are beginning a three-day strike – on a day when the airline is expecting to carry 160,000 passengers to and from the UK.
But Ryanair says it expects to operate a normal schedule.
Members of the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) employed by Ryanair in the UK have already walked out for two days in August, and have begun a 72-hour stoppage in a dispute over a range of issues from pensions to maternity benefits.
The pilots’ union also says it wants to “harmonise pay across the UK in a fair, transparent, and consistent structure”.
The airline paints a different picture of the dispute, saying that the strike is in support of “unreasonable pay demands” including captains on £170,000 a year wanting a pay rise of over £200,000.
Balpa rejects these sums. The union’s general secretary, Brian Strutton, said: “The figures banded about by Ryanair when it comes to our pay claim are simply ridiculous, bumped up, fictitious spin.
“They need to put a serious offer on the table so that this industrial action, brought about by the company’s flat refusal to even look at the needs of its workforce and passengers, can be brought to an end.”
Ryanair says: “We have invited Balpa to meet with Ryanair to resume negotiations, and to call off these unsupported and failed pilot strikes, but Balpa have refused to take these repeated invitations.”
While the two sides remain a long way apart, the airline has rostered volunteers to work on their days off to replace striking pilots.
An airline spokesperson said: “On behalf of our customers and their families we wish to sincerely thank all our UK pilots who have not supported this Balpa strike, and have confirmed they will work as rostered to protect the flights and travel plans of our UK customers and their families over the first week of September.”
At the airline’s biggest base, Stansted, one Ryanair flight to Hamburg departed an hour late.
There appear not to be problems with Ryanair flights at other airports. But British Airways, easyJet and Flybe have cancelled a number of flights, partly as a result of the French air-traffic control failure on Sunday.
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