Shares in Ryanair Holdings Plc (LON:RYA) rose on Wednesday as the budget airline evidently took an aggressive step in its stand-off with its pilots.
Ryanair has today threatened that as many as 300 crew members could be out of work this winter season as it cuts back its Dublin-based fleet by 20% (to 24 planes down from 30).
According to the airline, the move, which comes the day after the latest pilots strike, is a response to rapid growth in its Polish charter airline and a downturn in forward bookings and airfares in Ireland.
READ: Ryanair warns of impact from further pilot strikes
It added that the downturn out of Dublin was partly the result of the rolling strikes by Irish pilots which it claimed had dented consumer confidence in the reliability of Irish flight schedules.
“We regret these base aircraft reductions at Dublin for winter 2018, but the board has decided to allocate more aircraft to those markets where we are enjoying strong growth (such as Poland), and this will result in some aircraft reductions and job cuts in country markets where business has weakened, or forward bookings are being damaged by rolling strikes by Irish pilots,” said Peter Bellew, Ryanair chief operating officer.
Ryanair shares rallied 4% to trade at €14.55 each.