Ryanair in “savage cuts” to Portugal service

Ryanair’s director of human resources has told the news agency Lusa that there is the “very real prospect of savage cuts in Portugal” in the winter in terms of capacity and planes.

“We are facing very uncertain times, and there is a very real prospect of savage cuts in Portugal this winter at all of our bases, in terms of both capacity and aircraft,” said Darrell Hughes, Ryanair’s director of human resources in a telephone interview.
Without being specific and giving numbers, the director of the Irish low-cost airline said, “There is the possibility of savage cuts anywhere with the company’s European operations” and reiterated its announcement made on Monday that the company would slash 20% of its planned timetable schedule for September and October.
“Any forecasts now for the winter will probably end up wrong. We’re studying the situation very carefully but we will have far fewer flights than we had last winter and that’s for sure”, adding that the airline would not speculate now on reduction numbers.
“On the numbers we will have to look at where these cuts will fall, but we would certainly expect some of these cuts to be in Portugal,” said Darrell Hughes.
Hughes added that the company has an agreement with pilots “to keep people employed” which at least will give them some protection,” but confirmed that the company “is not recruiting at the moment” but is in “survival and reconstruction mode”.
The Ryanair director aso said that it had no plans to “use any Crewlink personnel in the winter,” referring to the temping company which has been operating in Portugal for over 10 years and whose sole client is Ryanair.
Ryanair, which had expected to return to 70% capacity in September, explained in a communique that it would have to reduce the number of flights planned, namely to France and Spain, two countries included on the quarantine list imposed by the British Government.