Negative publicity over safety issues has failed to adversely affect Ryanair in the eyes of investors as its share price closed in Dublin at €12.19, an 8.6% rise for the week. The company also announced on Monday last that its pre-tax profits for the final quarter of 2006 had risen by 30% to €48m.
On Wednesday, the London Times published details of a memo sent from Ryanair management to its pilots threatening to sack them after the airline was taken to task over a series of dangerous approaches to airports over the past two years. During this time, the airline has experienced four incidents in which planes have made high-speed approaches or come in at the wrong height. The most recent incident involved a flight from Stansted to Cork on June 4 last year, when a pilot ignored the advice of a less experienced colleague to abort an attempted landing and perform a "go-around" when the plane was too high to make a safe landing. The captain instead decided to bank the plane in a tight circle to lose height and make a quick landing, prompting 16 homeowners to complain about the flight's proximity to their rooftops.
Air accident investigators also examined incidents at Knock Airport in 2006, Skavsta Airport and Rome Fiumicino, both occurring in 2005. The Irish Times also published details of four Ryanair jets that landed at Stansted Airport on April 24 last in heavy fog which should have diverted because of low visibility.
Under new rules, the airline's 1,600 pilots were warned that they will be demoted the first time they make a dangerous approach and fired for a second such offence.
In response to union claims that morale among Ryanair pilots is an all-time low, Ryanair chief, Michael O'Leary said that if they felt conditions were so bad then there were free to seek employment at other airlines; "they could even join Aer Lingus", he said.
The British Airline Pilots' Association were critical of the memo's contents saying the pressure endured by pilots working for low-cost airlines to adhere to 25-minute turnaround times at airports could result in a "lethal cocktail" of pressure for crew members. Irish Times sources said Ryanair pilots complain of being bullied by management and contradicted the pay rates asserted by the company.
Source: Emigrant Online
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