Christmas strike suspended by Ryanair pilots, in order to avoid flight delays and cancellations during the holiday season

The union that represents the Irish based pilots, called Impact, has called off the strike that was set to occur on Wednesday, 20th of December 2017. Both parties involved will meet on Tuesday, (19th of December 2017) to initiate talks, over the demands presented by the airline’s employees.

The Union has stated that they decided to suspend the strike, initially after Ryanair’s management “agreed to recognise the union as the representative of Irish-based pilots.”

They also specified that the intention of cancelling the strike was to assure travellers that flights would operate as scheduled during the busy holiday season. There were no flight delays or cancellations announced previous to the postponement of the strike.

The last couple of months have seen a few problems for the airline after they made several mistakes; such as scheduling their pilot’s holidays and, because of it, having to cancel thousands of flights all around Europe.

It is also the first time that Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary, (famous for his character and extravagant personality), invited union leaders to start a conversation about their working conditions.

After affirming that the aim of the negotiation should be to “get people home quietly for Christmas”, Peter Bellew, Chief of Operations, said that meetings were also planned for January. The Airline is also facing issues with their workers and staff in Germany, Portugal, Great Britain and Italy.