Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) will maintain its Girona base, after coming to an agreement with employees at the Spanish airport which sees a modification to their contracts from permanent fixed to discontinuous fixed ones. The new contracts come into force on January 1, 2020.
The decision was explained to Europa Press by Unió Sindical Obrera de Catalunya (USOC) spokeswoman Lidia Arasanz. "There was a meeting at the end of November and the workers were told that if the base was to be maintained, most employees had to sign this contract renewal.” Arsanz also indicated that the new contracts contain "super abusive clauses" as they do not maintain worker's seniority and do not recognise the category of cabin crew, they are merely defined as customer service agents.
It is understood that not all of the airline's staff at Girona have signed the new contract, with a December 5 deadline for them to do so now passed. These staff will now be dismissed under the record of Employment Regulation File (ERE) announced by Ryanair.
The collective dismissal process announced by the airline originally affected 512 pilots and cabin crew across four of the airline's Spanish bases, with Girona joined by three of the airline's Canary Islands bases - Tenerife Sur, Gran Canaria/Gran Canaria, and Lanzarote.
368 dismissals were split across the Canary Islands bases - 156 at Tenerife Sur, 110 on Gran Canaria, and 82 on Lanzarote. These bases will still be closed on January 8, 2020, as the airline removes nine aircraft from those airports - four from Tenerife Sur, three from Gran Canaria, and two from Lanzarote.
The airline insists that no routes will be cut as a result of the base closures, however, frequencies will be trimmed on individual city pairs. According to the ch-aviation schedules module, Ryanair currently operates 43 routes from Tenerife Sur, 29 from Gran Canaria, and 24 from Lanzarote to a combined 14 different country markets.
Ryanair blames the base closures on the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, the delay in the arrival of up to thirty B737-8 aircraft and a fall in profits.
