The budget airline Ryanair has sacked the six cabin crew members who were pictured 'sleeping' on the floor of the airline Malaga crew room / office after flights on 14th October were cancelled due to storms.
The image was shared widely on social media at the time and Ryanair's Peter Bellew countered by saying all the hotels in Malaga were full and the crew were soon moved into the VIP lounge. However, upon checking, we found there were plenty of hotel rooms available in Malaga on that night and the VIP lounge manager testified that there was no Ryanair crew in the VIP lounge, for one major reason - the lounge closes overnight.
A few days later, the low-fare-high-fee airline released what it claims was a CCTV video from the crew room which suggested the photo was staged and the crew were only on the floor for a matter of minutes to allow the picture to be taken.
Ryanair said the photo damaged the company's reputation after it had been shared on social media because it was then picked up by the mainstream media. The airline also claims it "caused an irreparable breach of trust with these six persons".
SNPVAC the union representing the Ryanair cabin crew reported that the flight attendants were placed in the crew room, without enough seats to go around, with no food, no drink and no typical facilities to afford crews to take minimum rest prior to crewing the flight the next day. The union says the staff were in the room between 01:30 and 06:00, and were allowed to go to the VIP lounge when it reopened at 6am in the morning.
"Portuguese and European authorities should investigate if any of the crew stuck in Malaga on the night of the 14th October were forced to crew the flights back to Oporto the next day." Our chief aviation correspondent Jason Shaw said on Wednesday morning, "Because if they were forced to operate flights the next day without adequate facilities to allow the legal minimum rest period between flights, Ryanair would be in breach of a number of aviation safety regulations."
(Photo SNPVAC)
