The final ‘Brexit’ agreement reached just a few days ago between the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) has meant a major change within the context of some of the main European airlines. This is the case with the Irish low-cut airline, Ryanair, which values the option to stop operating some of its frequencies on the British island before the decisions taken by its Government.
One of the main problems that has generated criticism from the airline, are the heavy restrictions adopted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic. It must be borne in mind that as a result of the new strain of the virus detected in the country, many European powers canceled their flights with the United Kingdom and are currently still keeping them to a minimum.
To this situation is added the demand crash which has led to the decision of the British Executive to limit the mobility of its citizens, as well as the lack of international flights. Faced with this situation, Ryanair have requested both the United Kingdom and Ireland to advance their vaccination campaign as far as possible, in order to resume activity as quickly as possible.
On the other hand, the low-cost airline has been forced to cancel several routes within the United Kingdom, such as consequence of a change in personnel policy. According to the explanations given by the airline, this has been due to a last minute change within British regulations as a result of the ‘Brexit’ agreement that was agreed upon about a week ago. “Ryanair’s UK subsidiary had agreed to Brexit contingency agreements two years ago and cannot meet its new and impractical requirements with a 10-day notice,” the airline explained in a statement.
Modifications to the offer
The Irish low-cost airline reported Thursday that it will “considerably” reduce your schedule of flights starting next January 21, in response to the drop in demand caused by the new confinements. The company also explained that the bolts decreed this week in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in a “small number” of European countries cause a sharp drop in your passenger traffic in January, February and March, which will force a reduction in the flight schedule this month.
Thus, Ryanair anticipates that it will transport less than 1.25 million users in January, while that figure could fall to 500,000 in February and March due to the impact of the confinements designed to stop the third wave of coronavirus. Thus, it has also lowered the previous estimate on passenger traffic for fiscal year 2021, which ends on March 31, and now forecasts that it will be between 26 and 30 million customers, compared to 149 million in 2020.
Controversial
As well as having to deal with new restrictions and the current tough situation in the UK, the company also faces other controversies. One of them is that the General Directorate of Labor has deny the registration of two new ERTEs due to ordinary force majeure to the airline, which affected a total of 216 workers.
Following a claim by the USO and SITCPLA unions, the General Labor Directorate has analyzed the documentation provided and the Labor Inspection report and has concluded that the existence of force majeure is not found alleged to authorize ERTE.
On the other hand, the company is also “at war” with Spanish travel agencies. The Spanish Confederation of Travel Agencies (CEAV) has made a new request to Ryanair for the company to regularize the situation of non-compliance with its obligation to return the amount of the plane tickets canceled as a result of the pandemic produced by Covid-19 and has advised that it will help its associates with the relevant actions, among which those of a criminal nature would be included.
At the end of November, CEAV already contacted Ryanair with a first letter urging the airline to proceed immediately with pending refunds. In the event that this requirement is ignored, CEAV has communicated to Ryanair that it will help its associated agencies to initiate the exercise of the pertinent actions, both for claiming amounts as of a criminal nature.
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