Ryanair’s Maltese subsidiary begins COVID-19 layoffs

Malta Air, a subsidiary of Irish holding company Ryanair Holdings, has started laying off staff due to the financial impact of the coronavirus crisis. Due to Malta Air’s three-month grounding due to the coronavirus pandemic, the company told employees that redundancies were “unavoidable”. In a memo to staff sent on May 29, and seen by Malta Today, the carrier said: “We regret to inform you that due to the COVID-19 crisis and the failure of our recent discussions with the ERCs [employee representative committees] to agree reasonable pay cuts, we need to make significant cost-reductions and implement urgent restructuring to protect the viability of our Maltese base.” The memo added that terminations would begin from June 30, with a one-month notice that will be paid in full. Approximately 20 pilots and 40 cabin crew will be made redundant, out of 179 pilots and cabin crew based on the island. A Malta Air spokesman said: “Due to COVID-19 we are facing a drop in traffic this year of up to 50%. We are doing our utmost to save jobs. We have agreed pay cuts with our pilots, which will be sufficient to avoid job losses, but our cabin crew have to date failed to accept our pay proposals, which means job losses of up to 40 cabin crew are now unavoidable.”