The Irish airline Ryanair, which recently accepted £600m in funding from the Bank of England, today confirmed that it is proposing to make up to 336 pilots in the UK redundant.

Ryanair has also, in addition to the 336 redundancies, proposed 20% pay cuts and other reductions in terms and conditions saying it would dismiss and re-engage on the revised terms if agreement to the changes was not reached.

Brian Strutton, BALPA General Secretary, said “The hypocrisy of Ryanair taking £600m in support from the British Government which it previously said it did not want is hardly surprising and neither is their cavalier treatment of loyal staff.

“The company is sitting on EUR4.1bn cash including this latest funding via the Bank of England, and its balance sheet is, in its own words, ‘one of the strongest in the industry’ yet it still wants to make redundancies and impose pay cuts.

“Our question is what assurances did the UK Government get from Ryanair about its workers before the Bank of England handed out the cash? Funding an airline whose own state isn’t offering a penny, when that airline goes on to treat its own staff like this, beggars belief.”