Yesterday’s Irish Mail on Sunday

Yesterday.

In the Irish Mail on Sunday.

An Irish Ryanair pilot made claims about working for the airline.

They said:

“I’m a Ryanair pilot and, as such, I’m treated like crap and used to it. The way we’re treated is disgusting. That’s why Michael O’Leary trying to make overtures to us now is laughable.

“Like all my colleagues, I’m not allowed a free cup of tea or coffee on the airplane. If we want it, we have to pay, even after flying four sectors [flights] a day. If we forget our wallet, hard luck.

“They even tried to stop us having water. Then the pilots’ union said we had to be allowed water – it was a health and safety issue. So now we’re allowed free water on the airplane. Some of the guys bring in tea bags to put in the hot water, which is nearly the same as free tea.

“But, of course, we’re not allowed to take the cardboard cups, so a lot of guys bring their own cups and tea bags now. That’s how it is in Ryanair.

“My mother, when she’s away in a hotel, empties all the sachets of tea, coffee and hot chocolate into her bag and posts them to me. I do the same in hotels. We all do. Not very glam, eh?

“….After working here for four years, I believe Michael O’Leary hates pilots. He has nothing but contempt for us. If there’s an opportunity for us to be humiliated, Ryanair will take it.

“I’m based out of Stansted but I’m Irish and my family is in Dublin. For personal reasons, I begged to be transferred to Dublin but I was told no, there were no vacancies.

“One day coming back to Dublin, I was sitting on the jumpseat and the pilot told me he was based in Dublin but trying to get transferred to London. That kind of thing is par for the course – if they wanted, they could have facilitated both of us but helping people is not on the Ryanair agenda.

“…For over 20 years, Michael O’Leary has singled out a single group of workers for abuse. I’m not sure why he does this.

“Pilots are really quite simple; we just want to do what we love and earn some money at the same time. But Michael O’Leary is aware of the potential threat pilots have been to other airlines when their union became too powerful.

“Air Berlin today is a great example. About to go bust, it’s being kept afloat by taxpayers to the tune of €150million and what have some pilots done there? Gone on strike. That’s an example of unions being stupid.

“So Ryanair has completely neutered pilots by stamping down on them from day one. It’s no way to treat people, colleagues and partners.

“At HQ in Dublin, there’s a Monday morning meeting of management where everybody shouts and screams at each other, led by O’Leary from the top.

“The operations guys could have seen this [current] crisis coming but they were probably afraid to tell O’Leary, because he’d scream at them.

“I know that some people can’t sleep the night before that meeting and one operations guy had a shoe thrown at him. He’s now left.”

Yikes.