If you were worried about your holiday travel being disrupted by the planned Ryanair pilot strike, there may yet be hope.
Ryanair is making a huge policy shift and recognising pilot unions, avoiding the Ireland-based pilots' strike slated for next Wednesday, December 20.
The strike was organised in order to win collective representation in pay deals, instead of through Ryanair's employee channels.
"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," CEO Michael O'Leary said of the change, the Independent.ie reports.
Michael said that the airline has invited pilot unions from Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Italy to talks.
"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," he explained.
The outspoken executive also noted, "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."
The airline's pilots have been putting pressure on Ryanair to grant them collective bargaining rights and recognise the unions since September this year.
Irish trade union Impact stated that the planned walkout is 'solely about winning independent representation for pilots in the company', as Ryanair was the only Irish-based airline that did not recognise the unions until today.
They were not the only Ryanair employees planning to strike, as Ryanair pilots and crew in Italy planned to walk out for four hours today, though it is unclear if that will go ahead. Pilots in Portugal also recently voted to strike.
Ryanair's historic policy shift is a clear attempt to avoid the potential travel chaos that could ensue if the strikes go ahead.
The talks come with the condition that the unions set up committees of Ryanair pilots focused on Ryanair issues so that the airline will not have to engage with pilots who fly for their competitors.
Hopefully this change means that everyone can have stress-free Christmas travel!
