Ryanair will be forced to scrap a planned expansion of UK flights unless it is allowed to hire foreign air stewards, chief executive Michael O’Leary has said.
Mr O’Leary warned that British workers no longer want to work as cabin crew, and attacked “insane” post-Brexit rules that stop the company from deploying foreign workers at its 13 bases in the country.
He said that it threatens the Irish carrier’s plans to station 20 more aircraft at British airports by the end of the decade, an increase that will create as many as 1,000 jobs.
Mr O’Leary said: “The UK needs entry-level labour and young kids are no longer willing to do those jobs because there’s full employment. People don’t want to be cabin crew anymore. If they don’t, fine, let’s bring in Spanish or Italian or central European citizens.”
Simply raising wages to attract new hires is not an option, with Ryanair crew already paid between £30,000 and £50,000 a year, he said.
Mr O’Leary also suggested he would be happy to carry deportees on flights to Rwanda under Sunak’s plans to crack down on illegal immigration.
Back, scratch, mine, yours…..
Mr O’Leary also suggested he would be happy to carry deportees on flights to Rwanda under Sunak’s plans to crack down on illegal immigration.
What a great idea. And he can charge the passengers people smuggler rates for luggage and in-flight catering.
It’s hard to see where the benefit to the UK lies when the 1000 proposed new jobs are taken up by foreigners and is it reasonable to claim the there is full employment when 5m are on benefits?
Once the rules are relaxed, Ryanair will replace all those UK jobs at £30-50k with foreign workers on half that,
I thought they employed people on zero hours contracts.
If lots of civil servants are going to be made redundant Ryanair will easily be able to find new staff.
David …but only if they can work from home! The Pyjama Army takes to the air (bed).
Maybe, Ottokring, you’re confusing them with the Labour Party?
He’s offering to operate deportation flights that he knows very well will never happen, in return he gets to replace British people with foreign workers. Sounds like something the British Government will approve of…
Over a million immigrants a year, but never enough “skilled workers” for the parasitical Shit Businesses class that lives off taxpayer subsidised cheap foreign labour.
Lions on a plane.
The problem is that all of this becomes the hidden cost of cheap stuff. You bring in immigrants, they do basic jobs, lower the cost of getting people to do those jobs. Cheaper coffee, flights whatever. But you also have to house these people, give them policing, health, educate their children. They bring down the wages of people here and put more demand on housing, too.
Western Bloke hits the nail on the head.
Cheap labour is very expensive. It’s just the taxpayer rather than the business that pays.
If you can’t hire at the market rate, then don’t hire. Don’t try and depress the market rate artificially.
Western Bloke- yes and the alternative is that Bryan is outcompeted by european based airlines with that access to a larger workforce. Great, that’s something our population doesn’t want to do, so what’s wrong with foreigners willingly doing it for a price. And this way they stay in their homelands with their families and support network, or at least in the entity their home countries are voluntary members of.
Hmm, those 737’s are going to be on a bit of a stretch. They can just about do 4,000 miles, but no go-arounds methinks.
Steve
“Lions on a plane.”
Excellent. Business class on those otherwise coming back empty from Rwanda.
Can’t say I’m particularly favourable to the UK’s illegal immigrant hordes. Generally they should get what’s coming to them. But putting them on Ryanair flights is a bit extreme isn’t it? They’re generally only for masochists.
Why should we care that a foreign company, owned by a foreigner and employing other foreigners, is outcompeted by cheaper foreigners?
young kids are no longer willing to do those jobs because there’s full employment
OK Mr O’Leary…
The youth unemployment rate for those aged between 16 and 24 in the United Kingdom was 12.8 percent in February 2024
…… you fucking liar.
Once the rules are relaxed, Ryanair will replace all those UK jobs at £30-50k with foreign workers on half that
I reckon you’re spot on there.
Interesting how things change. Back in the 80’s the airlines were hugely over subscribed with girls and boys (sort of) wanting to be cabin crew. They were very poorly paid too and needed the commission on the Duty Free sales to make ends meet. I guess part of the problem is that they have to work as “Pretending” to Work From Home (PTFH) is not an option for them. Nor is being glued to their phone whilst they are working.
Andy
In slight defence 30 years ago flying was still generally a big deal. Passengers behaved a whole lot better (possibly because far more of them were actually British) . Most importantly long-haul contracts were incredibly generous often with week-long stopovers in exotic places supported by large tax-free allowances on top of the hotel accommodation. I knew several girls who managed to build up nice little property portfolios on what was a very decent overall remuneration package. You may be correct though about the short-haul salaries being piss-poor.
Nowadays far more passengers are scum, non-British cabin crew are becoming a rarity while the long stopovers and allowances are a distant memory. The self-styled “Worlds favourite airline” has been well and truly exposed as infinitely better service is the norm elsewhere.
…because there’s full employment.
Hold on, so I haven’t been unemployed for the last 16 months? Jeez, why haven’t I been paid?
Bloke in Wales- quite right. We don’t.
While not wishing to throw cold water on Mr O’Leary’s latest free advertising wheeze, I feel compelled to point out that London-Kigali is over 4,000 miles – double the range of Ryanair’s 737s. I call bollocks.
Ryanair saw what P&O got away with, and wants the same. Make no mistake: if they get what they’re asking for here, they won’t hire pretty Spanish girls as stewardesses; they’ll take the cheapest Indian or Filipino staff available.
@HHG: the two statements aren’t incompatible. Just because someone is ‘looking for a job’ doesn’t mean they want to actually work. A friend of mine runs a restaurant, is always looking for staff, and 90% of the few job applicants she gets say ‘We don’t want a full time job just 16 hours a week otherwise we’ll lose out benefits’.
How does Ryanair take a delivery of an aircraft for its European fleet that doesn’t have the range to cross the Atlantic?
It does look there’s an opening for a coach company to take economic asylum seekers back from Dublin to Great Britain shortly. The UK should offer the Republic a deal worth £70m a year from them to us, which would nicely recoup the cost of the Rwanda programme.
@Bongo – via Iceland, Keflavík International Airport.
Bongo
The aeroplanes are empty. Besides it’s quite a short haul from say Halifax NS to Shannon or to get to Iceland and tank up.
I wonder which particular war torn shithole he intends to stop in on the way south.
How does Ryanair take a delivery of an aircraft for its European fleet that doesn’t have the range to cross the Atlantic?
Don’t they do ferry flights by taking some seats out & putting a flexible fuel tank in the cabin? But Ottokring’s right. Any aircraft has far greater range when empty. You need lift to keep mass in the air & lift=drag & drag=fuel consumption.
@Western Bloke – “But you also have to house these people,”
Why? Have we turned into a communist society? They can house themselves.
– “give them policing, health, educate their children.”
No more than anyone doing the same job.
The arguments for opposing immigration are like the arguments used to oppose international free trade, and just as bogus.
The 737-800 ER can do 6,636 miles without refueling.
Enough to get to Rwanda?
Yes, you might get there. Can you return? Are you at the mercy of whoever controls the airport as to whether you get fuel and how much you pay?
The 737-800 ER can do 6,636 miles without refueling.
Ryanair doesn’t have a fleet of those tho does it…?
I disagree. That might well be something our population doesn’t want to do FOR THE SALARY ON OFFER, which is a big difference.
Not much caché in the role of a Ryanair steward/stewardess, is there?
@Jim – full employment is generally regarded as 4-5% unemployment rate. Ergo, 12% cannot be described as full employment.
I don’t buy the crybaby “nobody wants to work” crap. Pay higher wages. Improve conditions. Employers can stick the “let’s import cheap labour while the rest of society picks up the cost of externalities” up their arses.
M
“Yes, you might get there. Can you return? Are you at the mercy of whoever controls the airport as to whether you get fuel and how much you pay?”
That’s true every time a plane lands. They always land without that much fuel for obvious safety reasons and hence always then refuel before the next onward (or return) flight. Even if they are suddenly forced to land shortly after take-off they’ll quickly jettison a good chunk of that take-off fuel before landing.
“I don’t buy the crybaby “nobody wants to work” crap. ”
You’ve obviously never tried to employ people then, certainly within the last decade. Another friend is a line manager at a large warehouse. He’s responsible for hundreds of employees, dealing with hiring, firing etc. He says that a good 50% of the people that get sent to him to interview for shop floor jobs don’t really want to work there (or anywhere). They’re only there because they’ve been told by their UC coach that they have to go for interview on pain of having their benefits stopped. If they get given a job they’re looking for any reason to stop get out of it, or even to get fired. And these are the natives. The immigrants (and there’s lots of those there) are grafters. Its the native Brits who are the dole bludgers, just looking to play the system for the easiest life possible.
You’ve obviously never tried to employ people then, certainly within the last decade
I do, actually. In a 3PL, and I don’t share your friends outlook of the jobs market.
The “lazy Brits” thing is nonsense on stilts. A lazy trope used to justify mass immigration and corporate welfare.
The market is tight, and wage pressures were up, although they have lessened, but you can employ if you offer the right overall package.
Thanks Roger – from google it looks like St Johns, then Keflavik, then mainland Europe is the delivery route.
If Mr O’Leary could build an 80 foot high terraced crescent at each of his hubs then he’d get my vote. There is not enough residential housing close to airports in my view, and there might be more willing workers if you could walk to work for the start of your shift.
I don’t mean it has to be compulsory for airport workers to live close by, but it should at least be optional.
Out of curiosity I wonder where the Chek Tat Kok workers in Hong Kong mostly live.
@Bongo
The Mainland Europe bit is where things will go awry…
You’re talking extradition flights.. Unless they put very firm locks on the plane doors, the buggers *will* try anything to get out.
Including sabotaging/wrecking the plane as soon as it stops anywhere on mainland Europe..
If, and that’s a big *IF* …., he’s allowed to land those flights anywhere in Europe at all….
Can’t imagine airports willing to take that risk…
Honestly… The only way the whole Rwanda deal will ever work is by ship.
Asylum compound, on the ship, and write off the ship and leave it there as part of the deal.
No doubt the Ministry of Defense or the Pentagon have blueprints of the WW II troop carriers *somewhere* in their archives.
If you Brits have remembered how to build ships at all….
Grikath
I’m thinking of the convict transports the Brits used to transport the crims to Oz in the good old days. Or maybe they should base them on the slave ships that served the Atlantic slave trade in the brave old days of yore??
No need to leave the ship there. We’ve still got all the rubber dinghies, so just take along a bunch of those. The illegals know how to drive them, obviously. So just get close enough to the African coast and launch the illegals in them.
Charles
@Western Bloke – “But you also have to house these people,”
Why? Have we turned into a communist society? They can house themselves.
The arguments for opposing immigration are like the arguments used to oppose international free trade, and just as bogus
There is nothing remotely bogus about Western Blokes statement. As a single example:-
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/ethnicity/articles/somalipopulationsenglandandwales/census2021
The bar chart in Figure 8 shows that people who identified as Somali in England and Wales were most commonly in households living in socially rented accommodation (72.0%), at a level much higher than the overall population (16.6%).
They are not housing themselves. I thought that sort of bullshit claim was only found on Question Time.
Out of curiosity I wonder where the Chek Lap Kok workers in Hong Kong mostly live.
My nephew lives in Yau Tong, about 90 minutes by MTR, and is probably the furthest away.
Honestly… The only way the whole Rwanda deal will ever work is by ship.
Rwanda’s over a thousand kilometres from the nearest coast. I wouldn’t fancy your chances of cutting a transit deal with Tanzania.
BiS
Who said that the ships have to reach Rwanda ?
Old cruise liner, filled with halal ready meals. Everyone boards at Southampton. Ship sails to St Helena, crew gets off and flies home.
Put it down to ‘ strange things happen at sea.’
LOL, BiS beat me to it, although – given Dutch – I was happy to assume an element of tongue-in-cheek or “Africa, it’s all the same”…
Otto
Ah, we’re slowly moving back to the “South Georgia and DIY halal penguin” solution….
Charles,
“Why? Have we turned into a communist society? They can house themselves.”
And if they’re too poor, and here, then what? Do they live in tents?
“– “give them policing, health, educate their children.”
No more than anyone doing the same job.”
Right and the problem there is that many people are a burden. They take more out than they pay in. You don’t want to import more of those people because we all get poorer if we do.
@John – “people who identified as Somali in England and Wales were most commonly in households living in socially rented accommodation (72.0%), at a level much higher than the overall population (16.6%).”
You fail to read the rest of the report. Such as “For those who identified as Somali, 43.5% were born in England and 43.1% were born in Somalia.”, so we cannot conclude that they are actually foreigners at all. Furthermore, “Of those who identified as Somali, 58.8% were living in overcrowded accommodation; this is nearly eight times higher than the percentage of the England and Wales population (8.4%).” so even if they are being housed (which is, of course, entirely our own fault and should not be blamed on them), they’re cheaper to house.