The airline Ryanair has decided to close four of its bases in Spain from January 2020 and proceed with a social plan.

The airline Ryanair will remove four bases in Spain and launch a social plan that "could concern" 512 jobs of pilots and cabin crew, announced in a statement the union USO, while a strike is scheduled for September.

Collective licensing

"The decision was made to close a number of bases from January 8, 2020, including Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Girona," the company said in an email to its employees consulted by AFP, invoking "significant overcapacity in the European short-haul market". "It is with regret that I inform you of our decision to start the collective redundancy procedures for all cabin crew and Ryanair pilots" based on these four airports, the letter continues.

"Our main goal will be to minimize job losses through transfers," adds Ryanair, warning however that there will likely be "duplicates" given "the current surplus of cabin crew across the network". Ryanair also cites as an explanation for poor financial results and delivery delays for Boeing 737 MAXs.

Strike notice

At the end of July, the Irish company announced plans to eliminate a total of 900 jobs out of a total of around 13,000 employees in its network. For the USO union, Ryanair "actually dismantles its bases in Spain because applying Spanish labor law costs them more than hiring new sailors through other companies where conditions are more precarious".

"How do you explain that the very day that you announce to your workers the closing of bases, job offers for Laudamotion (Austrian subsidiary of Ryanair) in Madrid and Barcelona are published?", Denounces the union. Representatives of Ryanair's cabin crew in Spain on Tuesday issued a ten-day strike notice in September protesting the closures. Ryanair faces several social movements in Europe.