Flight attendants took to social media on Sunday following an ordeal where the airline they work for appeared to leave them stranded in conditions worse than the worst backpacker hostel you’ve ever visited.
Crew and pilots of Ryanair forced to sleep on office floor.
The photograph, published by the crew on social media show the Ryanair team lying on the floor of what appears to be an office at Spain’s Malaga Airport on Sunday Morning after a storm had left the flight stranded.
While it would seem the picture was staged for protest purposes, the tiny office room held only eight seats, for the entire crew of eight pilots and sixteen flight attendants, for the five hour delay. During this time the crew claim they were without access to food or water.
Now we have all been tired enough to catch a nap on the floor of the gate floor in between lay overs, but when you work for an airline one would assume that in the wake of an emergency some better standards would be in place.
After every flight.
This is a Ryanair 737 crew based in Portugal, stranded in Malaga, Spain a couple of nights ago due to storms. They are sleeping on the floor of the Ryanair crew room. RYR is earning €1.25 billion this year but will not put stranded crews in a hotel for the night. @peterbellew ? pic.twitter.com/lILWZVqqGj
— Jim Atkinson (@Jimbaba) October 14, 2018
The individual who posted the tweet tagged Peter Bellow, the Chief Operations Officer of the airline, who tweeted back his response which wasn’t met with total credulity:
The pilots aren’t buying it! pic.twitter.com/OJRKfwyAUm
— Jim Atkinson (@Jimbaba) October 14, 2018
“Due to storms in Porto a number of flights diverted to Malaga,” Ryanair released in a statement. “As this was a Spanish national holiday, hotels were fully booked.”
The excuse fell flat for these poor workers, with the Portuguese union for airline employees SITCPLA, not convinced of the airline’s efforts.
“In the end, they were informed it was impossible to find any hotels. Friday was a bank holiday in Spain and the duty manager said all hotels were full…” SITCPLA delegate Fernando Gandra said regarding the statement provided, “Maybe all hotels around Malaga airport and the city were full, but for sure it would have been possible to accommodate these crews in different hotels, even ones far away from the airport.”
“It is the legal responsibility of the airline to provide suitable accommodation, namely a hotel room,” says the union, “so that crew can perform their rest under the national and European legal requirements, in order to be able to operate the following duty safely.
“SNPVAC will produce a formal complaint to all the relevant civil aviation authorities and we expect an urgent and robust intervention so that events like this won’t happen again.”
Makes sense for people to be angry with the airline’s cheap excuses, with the company earning over $2 billion AUD this year alone.
Online the hashtag #RyanairMUSTchange has been circling social media, sharing their own harrowing stories of Ryanair or general disgust with the company following the recent events.
Surely a crew resting in these conditions cannot be classed as rested within legal parameters to fly & be cabin safety? What are you doing @Ryanair? As Union Rep for truckers I would not recommend a member drive a truck knowing they had rested like this! #RyanairMUSTchange
— He Who Chose My Name ? ?️? ??????? ?? (@Jordaniel_RB) October 14, 2018
Nobody "chooses @Ryanair", so stop thanking them, they choose inhumane treatment, for cheapest price possible. SUN 14th Oct: 3 cancelled flights, 600 people, 2 Ryanair staff members. 10h in a queue. No water, no food, no information. #RyanairMUSTchange #ryanairssucks
— Michal Duczmal (@mike_duczmal) October 15, 2018
My knee was in a brace and crutches and they moved to a seat where my leg was in the aisle. The stewardesses kept bumping into to me with their trolley, passengers kept walking on me plus the cabin crew was xtremely rude! I raised a complaint and no reply #RyanairMUSTchange https://t.co/tg2R5TpFjC
— MelleLaurelineG (@MelleLaurelineG) October 16, 2018
That is an outrageous treatment of personnel—unfortunately, Ryanair has a long history of employee abuse. Guess who I WON’T be flying until they straighten this out?
— Stacey Keith (@StaceyKeith8) October 15, 2018
In response to the outcry Ryainair has discredited the photo, claiming the crew only spent a short time in the room until they were moved to a VIP lounge.
After the delay in Malaga airport the staff were flown to Porto, Portugal where they had to wait for three hours on board until a captain was flown in from London to operate the flight.
Next time you have an extended layover or delay spare a thought for the crew and pilots of the flight, who are probably stuck waiting in equally terrible conditions somewhere else in the airport.