Ryanair's Laudamotion to lay off 300 people as it plans to close Vienna base

Laudamotion, a Ryanair subsidiary has said it will lay off 300 workers in its main base in Vienna after the transport union refused to accept pay cuts for employees of the airline. Lauda has said that it will shut down its base in Vienna on May 29 after no it was unable to break a deal with the Vida, a trade union representing workers in the transport and service industries in Austria. Laudamotion was founded by the Formula One racing driver Niki Lauda and was merged into Ryanair in 2018. 

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Job cuts in Ryanair

Ryanair, Europe’s largest low fares airline itself is cutting jobs to deal with the coronavirus crisis. The airline on May 15 announced that it has reduced its office headcount in Dublin, Stansted, Madrid, and Wroclaw by over 250. Earlier this month, the Irish airline had announced that it planned to cut 15 per cent of its workforce, which is about 3,000 staff members due to coronavirus lockdown.

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While announcing job cuts on May 15, Ryanair’s People Director Darrell Hughes said, "This is a very painful time for Ryanair, our crews and our people supporting operations from our Dublin, Stansted, Madrid, and Wroclaw offices. While we expect to re-open our offices from 1 June next, we will not require the same number of support team members in a year when we will carry less than 100m passengers, against an original budget of 155m. Further announcements on Ryanair crew job losses and pay cuts are expected before the end of May in the light of further and on-going flight restrictions."

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Media reports suggest that Ryanair flights will remain grounded until July and the airline may slash the pay of its employees by up to 20 per cent. CEO O'Leary's salary was cut by 50 per cent after he decided to forgo his salary and said he wants to continue with this for the remaining financial year, that is until March 2021. 

Read: Irish Carrier Ryanair To Lay Off 3,000 Workers By End Of July Amid COVID-19 Crisis

(Image Credit: Laudamotion/webpage)