It's great news for high flyers - Ryanair is hiring 2,000 more pilots as it looks to put more planes in the sky after the pandemic.
The budget airline announced the new hiring spree today, saying it wants to have everyone on board over the next three years.
The airline thinks most of the 2,000 captain vacancies will be filled by its current more junior staff, but that will mean it hires more lower-level employees as they move up.
Those pilots that get hired will be trained to fly Boeing 737 aircraft in Dublin by the Airline Flight Academy.
A Ryanair statement said: "As part of Ryanair’s career development initiatives, most captain vacancies created by these new aircraft deliveries will be filled by internal promotions which creates opportunities for replacement first officers, and ultimately new cadet pilots who can kickstart their pilot career with Ryanair so they can grow into the next generation of Ryanair’s first officers and captains."
Its pilots work a rota of five days on, four days off, with no planned overnight stays and schedules published four weeks in advance.
During the pandemic almost all Ryanair pilots and cabin crews took pay cuts as the airline faced a wave of redundancies .
The airline currently has one sort of plane, the Boeing 737-800.
But Ryanair has just been delivered its first Boeing 737-8200 Gamechanger aircraft, which is meant to need less fuel, be quieter and produce less CO2.
Pilot training course will run throughout 2021 so that the first batch of new pilots are ready by next summer.
Interested aviators can apply here.
Ryanair people director Darrell Hughes said: "Throughout the pandemic, Ryanair has worked closely with our people to save jobs and we are delighted to start planning for a return to growth over the coming years as we recover from the Covid-19 crisis and grow to 200million guests by FY2024."
Last month a couple accused Ryanair of “profiteering” off the pandemic after attempting to charge them almost triple the value of their original flights to re-book.
Jay and Janet Youll's flights to Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands – totalling £291 – were cancelled last summer due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Rather than take a refund they accepted a voucher as they'd flown with the airline before and were happy to help out with the travel industry struggling.
But on attempting to re-book for earlier this month, the couple, from Poole, Dorset, were told they needed to pay another £285 on top of what they'd already paid, despite having cashed the voucher.
Ryanair and rival budget airline easyJet have said face masks will remain compulsory on their flights even once the nationwide mandate lifts.
The companies said last week that face coverings will still be required onboard on all flights.
