Ryanair and easyJet, two low-cost airlines, are fast-tracking the defunct Flybe workers, which entered administration over the weekend, leading to 277 job losses.
Ryanair is recruiting for all sectors of its business ranging from flight crew to cabin crew, engineers, and ground and office staff. The company wants to ensure that Flybe’s staff starts working again.
Ryanair promised to “endeavour to get you back into employment as soon as possible.”
The organisation has encouraged employees to forward their CV which has the Flybe job title so as to fast-track their application.
According to Ryanair, “We are sure this is a difficult time for you and your families but we are here to help you get back into employment very quickly.”
EasyJet on the other hand has urged the cabin crew of Flybe to apply for any of the numerous job vacancies at Luton and Gatwick as it was not currently advertising for the flight crew.
The implication of fast-tracking these recruitments by Ryanair and easyJet fast-tracking is that workers of Flybe can begin working again in weeks to come.
The call for recruitment was initiated by these companies following a statement written on Saturday by British Civil Aviation Authority states that “Flybe, which operated scheduled services from Belfast City, Birmingham and Heathrow to airports across the United Kingdom and to Amsterdam and Geneva, has ceased trading”
A statement posted on Flybe’s twitter page reads, “ We are sad that Flybe has been placed into administration. David Pike and Mike Pink of Interpath have been appointed administrators. Regretfully, Flybe has now ceased trading. All Flybe flights from and to the UK are cancelled and will not be rescheduled.”
After the first collapse of Flybe in 2019 and the loss of 2,000 employees, the company was revived in April 2022 from its new headquarters at Birmingham airport. With a small number of flights to mainland Europe, the airline largely flew within the UK.
In the words of the Unite national officer for civil aviation, Oliver Richardson, “The government has not learned the lessons from the original collapse of Flybe. It has failed to introduce the Airline Insolvency Bill, which would have allowed Flybe to continue to operate, avoiding passengers being stranded and staff losing their jobs in the middle of the night.
“In recent years the UK has seen the collapse of Monarch, Thomas Cook and Flybe twice; how many more airlines will be allowed to plunge into administration before the government introduces the measures needed to protect the UK’s aviation industry and its passengers?”
The general secretary, British Airline Pilots’ Association, Martin Chalk added “Many of the staff of Flybe will have recently suffered the harrowing effects of one bankruptcy, and now they are being subjected to yet another.
“Balpa will not only support its members through this difficult time but will seek to work with the Department for Transport to improve the regulatory framework to avoid such sudden and precipitous events in the future.”
