Ryanair Christmas strike called off: Everything you need to know about how the airline backed down

Ryanair pilots have suspended a one-day strike in the run-up to Christmas after the airline made an historic climbdown in agreeing to recognise unions for the first time in its 33-year history.

What’s happened?

The Irish carrier on Friday morning said it had written to pilot unions in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal inviting each to begin talks to establish the unions as the official representative bodies for the carrier’s flight crew.

This followed an announcement earlier in the week by the airline’s Dublin-based pilots that they intended to strike for 24 hours on December 20 over a dispute about the absence of union representation. Ryanair has long refused to engage with unions, instead only dealing with staff demands and concerns directly, something the airline was legally allowed to do.

After a tense stand-off over the weekend, a statement from Impact, the Irish Municipal, Public and Civil Trade union, of which Ialpa (the Irish Air Line Pilots' Association) is a branch, said on Sunday evening that the one-day strike had been "suspended... after company management agreed to recognise the union as the representative of Irish-based pilots".

It added that the union intends to meet with Ryanair on Tuesday. 

Why were Ryanair pilots going to strike?

It felt like it was still part of the fall-out from the pilot rostering failure earlier in the year, which appeared to test the patience of the some of the carrier’s staff.

The ballot by Impact returned a large majority in favour of striking, with the date set as December 20, for a period of 24 hours.

The dispute centred on Ryanair pilots’ desire to negotiate terms via the collective European Employee Representative Council – which encompasses staff at all bases – rather than each of the company’s 87 bases agreeing terms separately. Pilots in Italy and Portugal also voted in favour of industrial action.

A letter to Ryanair from the Ialpa branch of the union, and seen by Telegraph Travel, said the staff were preparing for industrial action should Ryanair fail to see Ialpa as the representative body for its pilots, commence disciplinary proceedings against any Ialpa members or reduce their pay or change their terms or conditions of employment.

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What has Ryanair said?

Having originally said it would “face down” the industrial action, Ryanair said on Friday it would change its policy of not recognising unions as long as the bodies were exclusively Ryanair pilots, rather than, say, Ryanair and Aer Lingus, as Ialpa was.

“Ryanair now calls on these pilot unions to call off the threatened industrial action on [December 20] next so that our customers can look forward to travelling home for Christmas without the threat or worry of pilot strikes hanging over them,” the airline said in a statement.

Chief operations officer Peter Bellew, said: “Let’s keep talking. Get people home quietly for Christmas. Union meetings planned next week and January.”

Michael O’Leary, the airline’s combative chief executive, said last week: “Christmas flights are very important to our customers and we wish to remove any worry or concern that they may be disrupted by pilot industrial action next week.

“If the best way to achieve this is to talk to our pilots through a recognised union process, then we are prepared to do so, and we have written today to these unions inviting them to talks to recognise them and calling on them to cancel the threatened industrial action planned for Christmas week.

“Recognising unions will be a significant change for Ryanair, but we have delivered radical change before, most recently when we launched Ryanair Labs and our highly successful Always Getting Better customer improvement programme in 2013.

“Putting the needs of our customers first, and avoiding disruption to their Christmas flights, is the reason why we will now deal with our pilots through recognised national union structures and we hope and expect that these structures can and will be agreed with our pilots early in the New Year.”

Is it going to be a merry Christmas for Ryanair?

It just might be. With the strike held off and foundations laid for a more positive relationship with its pilots for the future, the Irish airline could banish the memory of an annus horribilis.

Come New Year, the airline will toast the back of a torrid year, in which it had to repeatedly defend its random seating policy before dealing with the fallout of cancelling hundreds of thousands of bookings.

What’s more is the airline will celebrate another record year of passengers carried. As of the end of November, Ryanair’s traffic was up 11 per cent on last year to 128.7million, a figure which puts its year’s total at around 140million, 23 million more than last year.

What happens if the pilots do strike?

Ryanair will be deeply unhappy, but the airline said it will deal with the disruption as and when it arises.

At a glance | EU Regulation 261/2004

Am I entitled to a refund if my flight is cancelled?

Yes. Should your flight be cancelled, European Union regulations require airlines to offer you either a full refund of the unused parts of your tickets, or to re-route you to your destination, as soon as possible. It may also allow you to rebook your flights for a later date at no extra cost.

Will I get compensation?

Airlines are not liable to pay the additional cash compensation set out by EU regulations when they are not directly responsible for the disruption. This might be a grey area should any flights be cancelled and passengers would have to test the letter of the law.

What should I do if I am stranded abroad?

EU regulations make it clear that, when a flight with an EU airline or from an EU airport is cancelled, an airline is liable to pay for the cost of a hotel and subsistence for all those stranded as a result, until a replacement flight is provided. Should your airline advise you to buy your own food and accommodation, keep all receipts, and keep such costs to a reasonable minimum, before making a claim when you get back to Britain.

My flight has been cancelled – can I cancel my accommodation?

If you have booked a hotel, a villa or other accommodation independently of your travel arrangements (ie not as part of a package holiday) your contract is directly with the hotel or villa and you are responsible for any cancellation. If you can’t get there, you will have to do your best to persuade them to give you a refund or rebook for a later date – but they are not obliged to do this and you may lose money.