“I don’t even know how there would be industrial action in Ryanair,” the company’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, observed at its annual general meeting in Dublin less than three months ago. “There isn’t a union.”

There is now. In fact, not merely one union, but several pilots’ unions from all over Europe will shortly be recognised for the purpose of collective bargaining with the airline. This is not simply a U-turn by O’Leary: it is a full loop-the-loop aerial extravaganza, with multicoloured vapour trails and a brass band playing in celebratory support.

Industrial action by Irish pilots, set for this Wednesday, was suspended on Sunday evening. The company should be sitting down with representatives from the union Impact tomorrow. Unions from the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal should all now get talks to avoid strike action in those countries as well.

Management is going to have to change its tune. Pilots do not have a 'difficult job', O’Leary has said.

Along with the usual refreshments served at such meetings, there ought to be a decent slab of humble pie for Ryanair’s management to consume. The company has resisted this for years. Doomsday must surely be near, because O’Leary has previously talked about hell freezing over or cutting off his arms before sitting down to deal with unions in this way.

Management is going to have to change its tune. Pilots do not have a “difficult job”, O’Leary has said. They are “precious about themselves” and “full of their own self-importance”. (He later apologised for the remarks, and said they were aimed at pilots working for rival airlines.) Now his pilots and their representatives will have the chance to ensure their pay and conditions improve, in order to avoid a repeat of the recent embarrassment over cancelled flights and missing crew.

Planes are just “buses with wings”, O’Leary has also observed. And here we get to the point about Ryanair and what has made it such a success. The company has called our bluff. We might moan about the indignities of travelling with it. We might balk at the apparent disdain the chief executive has for his staff and customers. But we keep coming back for more – even after thousands of flights were cancelled owing to the airline’s staffing problems. Their prices are low. Ryanair does not pretend to offer comfort or pleasure. It will fly you from one airport to another more cheaply than most of its competitors will.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary. Photograph: Axel Schmidt/Reuters

On a recent edition of the Radio 4 comedy show I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, John Finnemore said that Ryanair’s real advertising slogan ought to be: “You knew what you were getting into.” The gag produced a big laugh of recognition.

There is some sort of consumer cognitive dissonance going on here. Which? has just reported that Ryanair is the joint worst airline, according to its members. To which the company responds that it is also one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing airlines. Both claims can seemingly be true at the same time.

The airlines business is pretty weird. Customers can be dragged screaming from an overbooked plane, as happened earlier this year on a United flight, yet airlines continue to trade and investors continue to hold their shares. It’s business as usual.

Ryanair pilots suspend one-day strike in week before Christmas Read more

Matt Levine, a commentator at Bloomberg, has even suggested that, since most big investors hold shares in all the major stockmarket listed airlines, they are pretty relaxed about how they treat customers as long as between them they continue to dominate the market and deliver returns. Normal competition this is not.

It is all a very long way from the earlier glamour of the jet set and the aspirational image of international travel. Ryanair cabin crew have been told to try harder to flog more perfume and trinkets in the sky. And while piloting a plane was once seen as a dream job, as many as half of Ryanair’s pilots are not employees of the company at all, but agency staff, sometimes required to enter into intricate contractual arrangements with the airline. This has led to the pilots’ tax affairs being investigated by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

Now Ryanair’s approach has collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions. You still need pilots to fly planes – which is, of course, a difficult and highly responsible job.

And the 21st-century solution that the company has chosen to get it out of its difficulties? Trade unionism, employee representation and collective bargaining. It’s just like the old days. O’Leary has adopted the crash position, and workers around the world will have noticed.

• Stefan Stern is director of the High Pay Centre and co-author of Myths of Management