Carrier holds talks with pilots to change duties to five days flying followed by four off
Ryanair says its pilot to aircraft ratio is as high now as it has ever been and denies widespread industry rumours that its flightcrew recruitment and training has not been able to keep up with fleet growth. Meanwhile, the carrier is in “direct negotiations” with its pilots about the possibility of a radical change to its flightcrew rostering pattern to which the reaction has so far been positive, says chief pilot Capt Ray Conway.
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Ryanair says duty hours could be spread more easily |
The airline’s head of air and ground operations David O’Brien claims that the airline is recruiting and training pilots at a rate of 300 to 400 a year to meet a fleet expansion of between 30 and 40 aircraft every 12 months. Last year, says Conway, the airline took on 300 new pilots, created 150 new commands and 40 new training positions. At present the airline has “more than the nominal nine pilots per aircraft”, says O’Brien.
Ryanair’s fleet currently consists of around 100 Boeing 737-800s, with a further 140 on backlog. For about two more years the airline will continue to recruit some direct-entry captains to meet the command requirements it cannot fill through internal promotion, says O’Brien, but after that time the airline’s cadetship and training scheme will have eliminated that need and all captains will be promoted from within. He insists, however, that there is no shortage of quality pilot applicants with full commercial licences.
Now Ryanair is engaged in “negotiations” with its pilots about a proposal to change from its existing roster system – five days flying followed by three days off – to a five-on/four-off ratio. Conway says the airline’s simple operating formula should mean that its pilots could continue to achieve close to 900h annually, but duty hours would be spread more evenly over the 12-month period.
Late last week the airline was continuing the roster negotiations with pilots from the employee representative committee based at the carrier’s largest single base, London Stansted. There would, says deputy chief executive Howard Millar, need to be some quid pro quo from the flightcrew before the company could agree to formalise a 5:4 ratio, but he would not be specific on this until all the pilots have had time to react to the proposals. Many pilots who apply to join Ryanair cite its 5:3 work/time-off ratio as being one of the factors in their choice, so 5:4 would be an even greater incentive, Conway suggests.
DAVID LEARMOUNT / DUBLIN
Source: Flight International
