Earlier James wrote about a situation that has gone viral with Ryanair’s cabin crew. Ryanair is an ultra low cost carrier, and typically their crews don’t overnight at hotels, but rather they just fly somewhere and back the same day. So they’re clearly not as well equipped as other airlines when they face a situation where crew have to spend a night somewhere due to irregularities.
Due to weather they recently had about two dozen crew stranded overnight in Malaga. The airline didn’t get them hotels, but rather just had them sleep in the airport. There were even pictures posted online of this.
Admittedly the weather was bad and hotels were probably pretty full, but in my opinion an airline should have a higher duty of care when it comes to taking care of their employees, and should have looked further from the airport for accommodation.
Ryanair claimed the photo was staged, and said that the crew was moved to the “VIP Lounge,” where they had food, drinks, and more comfortable seating.
Ryanair has now posted CCTV footage on their Facebook and Twitter pagese of the crew clearly “faking” their sleeping arrangements for a photo.
This is simply pathetic. Not on the part of the cabin crew, but on the part of the airline. How low does the airline have to go to “expose” their employees in this way, not to mention violate their privacy?
Did the crew “pose” for a photo? Absolutely. But only to show how poorly they were being taken care of by their employer. It looks like they chose to just sit around all night rather than sleep, but it’s not like they had a better option for sleeping than just doing so on the floor.
What is Ryanair trying to prove here? “Look, they staged sleeping, really they sat around all night because there was nowhere to sleep!”
Ryanair is known for being one of the most dodgy airlines when it comes to their cabin crew. They don’t even employ them directly, but rather through an agency. Flight attendants even have a quota they have to reach for how much they sell onboard, so they could be fired if they don’t sell enough alcohol, perfume, and scratchcards.
Ryanair should be ashamed of the way they’re exposing their cabin crew in this way. Not that the airline cares much about morale, but what kind of a message does this send to their employees?
And it’s pretty telling that they’re deflecting from the real issue here.
We’ll never know for sure just how hard they tried to find their crews hotel rooms. Yes, I believe there was probably nothing near the airport available. However, I’m highly skeptical of whether they really exhausted all possible options in finding accommodation for their crew, including looking further from the airport.
At a minimum they owe an apology to their employees for what they put them through, and I’d say they also now owe them an apology for exposing them in this way, but I doubt there will be an apology for either of those things.
What do you think — is Ryanair justified in “exposing” their cabin crew, or is this low?
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.