Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said he will be taking a 50% pay cut along with the rest of the airline’s employees, as planes are grounded thanks to coronavirus travel bans.
The pay cut will be for April and May, with the airline re-assessing the situation at the end of it, he added that he could not rule out job cuts later on - with Government help needed to prevent mass lay-offs.
Speaking to the Financial Times, O'Leary said even in the best case there would be two to three months where flights would be grounded thanks to the global outbreak.
“Airlines and airports are going to have no customers and no revenues for the next two or three months," O'Leary said.
"What we’re clearly trying to avoid — if at all possible because we have to preserve cash — we want to avoid mass lay-offs but the only way we can avoid mass lay-offs in our industry . . . is going to be payroll support for the next two to four months.”
“The priority here for us as a company is how do we preserve as much cash so that if we have to operate for three, six, nine, maybe even 12 months, with no flights and no revenues how do we survive that, do we have the cash to survive that and we believe we do.”
But there was some hope it would end, he added.
“If we follow the same pattern as the Chinese then I think certainly from our perspective . . . we’re talking about a close down that will last for at least three months,” O'Leary said.
