Ryanair's problems with its pilots have had no effect on investors, writes Ciarán Hancock

For a high-flying airline, Ryanair seems to experience a lot of turbulence when it comes to dealing with its pilots, an important group of employees for any airline.

This week brought the revelation that Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary sent a memo last September to his 1,500 pilots, warning them that they faced demotion or the sack if they were involved in making a high-speed landing approach in future.

The memo was prompted by four such incidents over the past two years - at Cork Airport, Knock, Rome and Skavsta in Sweden. "It's four out of one million flights, but it's four too many," O'Leary told The Irish Times.

There were also incidents last April of Ryanair pilots landing in fog at Stansted when certain runway lights were not operational. A review of the matter was carried out by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), Ryanair's regulator. Kevin Humphries, director of safety regulation at the IAA, said it was happy that the airline had taken "appropriate steps to make sure this wouldn't happen again", and that some pilots had been sent for retraining.

In the memo, O'Leary told the pilots that crew members would be demoted for their first transgression and "automatically dismissed" for a second incident, save in "exceptional circumstances", which would have to be put before the board of directors.

He said he hoped "never to have cause to invoke the new policy". Those in doubt when landing should "default to the safer option and perform a go-around".

The Cork incident was reported in detail in the latest issue of Flight International, a leading trade publication.

In its report, the Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) describes the Cork incident, which took place on June 4th last year, as a "human factors event", and criticised the captain for poor crew resource management. It observed that the far less experienced co-pilot, who was not the pilot flying, "did endeavour to comply with crew resource management principles as trained", but "his inputs had little effect".

News of the memo prompted the British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa) to call for an independent study to examine the pressures being placed on pilots working for low-cost carriers.

"Threatening to sack a pilot helps no one, least of all the cause of flight safety," said Balpa chairman Mervyn Granshaw. "We continually strive for an open, blame-free culture in civil aviation and the self-reporting of any pilot error without fear of recrimination. In that way all pilots, and indeed the industry, can learn from mistakes. It is essential we keep that culture."

Balpa warned that the stress and pressure being placed on pilots at low-cost airlines, which are required to achieve 25-minute turnarounds at airports, could result in a "lethal cocktail" of pressure for the crew members.

It called on the IAA and the Civil Aviation Authority, which regulate airlines here and in the UK respectively, to oversee this study.

According to union sources, morale among Ryanair pilots is at an all-time low and more than 100 are believed to have told the airline that they plan to leave, thereby beginning a three-month notice period.

This is denied by O'Leary, who told The Irish Times that fewer than 10 pilots were on notice at the airline.

O'Leary also made no apologies for issuing the memo last year. "This is typical union stuff," he said. "A guy breaks a safety rule, what are we supposed to do? I sent the memo to remind pilots that if they are not properly configured for a landing at 500ft, they should go around and do the approach again.

"We have guaranteed that there will be a no-blame policy for go-arounds," he said.

O'Leary said the "purpose of the memo was not to sack pilots", but to reiterate to them the procedures that should be followed in the interests of safety. "Safety is our number-one priority."

Sources close to the pilots, however, see it differently. They complain of being bullied by management. They say rosters are frequently changed and they also say the pay rates quoted by the airline are fictional.

Very few pilots actually make €100,000 or more as claimed by O'Leary, according to informed sources. "You're promised the sun, moon and stars when you start, but the money they promise never materialises," said one pilot source.

In reply, O'Leary said: "If the conditions are so bad here and they're so unhappy at having to work in Siberian salt-mine conditions, why don't they leave?

"There are a lot of airlines in Europe looking for pilots; they could even join Aer Lingus."

He also pointed out that the airline recently recruited 300 pilots to staff new aircraft that are coming on stream to operate on the plethora of new routes being launched by Ryanair. Weeze, near Dusseldorf, was this week named as the airline's 19th base and it is planning to add five new aircraft to its base at Dublin airport.

O'Leary also denied that there was a testy relationship between the airline's management and its pilots. "There are 40 pilots in Dublin who have a problem with us but the pilots at other bases don't have a problem."

However, it is understood that well in excess of 100 pilots are unhappy with their lot in Dublin.

Ryanair last year offered pilots at its 18 bases two options on a new pay deal. A five-year deal, which O'Leary said included a 12 per cent pay rise in year one and lucrative share options, was taken up by pilots at just one base - Luton.

It came with a clause that the pilots would have to pay €15,000 in training costs for a new type of aircraft being introduced to the Ryanair fleet if they left within the five-year period.

They also had to agree not to seek trade-union recognition during this period.

As a result, pilots at other bases went, instead, for a one-year deal offering a 3 per cent pay rise and no share options. "The guys who took the five-year deal are about €50,000 better off on their share options," O'Leary said.

It is understood that the Irish pilots paying the training costs themselves net Ryanair about €1 million.

The Dublin pilots in particular have been troublesome for Ryanair.

For more than two years, they have been involved in a legal dispute with the airline over recognition and pay.

They pursued their case through the Labour Court, which, under a legislative amendment in 2004, was given jurisdiction to hear complaints from workers at companies where no union recognition or collective bargaining was in place.

Having won the day in the Labour Court and then in the High Court, the pilots were dealt a major blow when the Supreme Court last week ruled in favour of Ryanair.

The Supreme Court decided that the Labour Court's procedures were flawed and ruled that it should convene a new hearing. It is understood to have come as a crushing blow to the Irish pilots pursuing the case.

At best, they face another two-year-plus struggle through the courts. O'Leary has threatened to take a constitutional challenge.

At worst, the Labour Court might have to concur with a Supreme Court finding that collective bargaining of sorts already exists within Ryanair and therefore it does not have jurisdiction in the dispute.

Remarkably, none of this publicity over safety issues and pilot disputes appears to have negatively affected Ryanair in the eyes of investors and the public.

Its share price closed yesterday in Dublin at €12.19, an 8.6 per cent rise on the week.

On Monday last, the company said its pretax profit for the three months to the end of December rose by 30 per cent to €48 million, while its passenger numbers increased by 19.3 per cent to 10.3 million. They were stellar results.