Michael Hickey is first executive to resign at embattled airline following scrapping of thousands of bookings

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Ryanair’s chief operations officer will leave the crisis-hit airline at the end of the month, its chief executive, Michael O’Leary, has announced.

Michael Hickey’s resignation comes after the Irish airline had to scrap the bookings of more than 700,000 passengers last month due to an apparent shortage of pilots, having failed to plan for enough leave for staff.

O’Leary said: “Over the past 30 years Mick Hickey has made an enormous contribution to Ryanair, especially the quality and safety of our engineering and operations functions.

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“He will be a hard act to replace, which is why we are grateful he has agreed to continue in an advisory role to smooth the transition to a successor and to complete a number of large projects he is currently working on including a multi-year engine maintenance contract and new hangar projects in Seville and Madrid.”

Hickey will be the first executive to leave the embattled airline after the scheduling crisis.

The company was already under heavy fire for cancelling up to 50 flights a day in the middle of September before an extra 18,000 flights were axed at the end of the month.

O’Leary issued an unprecedented apology to his pilots this week in an attempt to stem the crisis at the airline, which has also faced the threat of an employee revolt.

Ryanair hoped a bonus payment could entice some pilots to change their holiday plans, but O’Leary further inflamed the situation with disparaging comments about pilots at the airline’s annual meeting in Dublin.



On Thursday, he sent an unusually contrite letter to pilots at the airline “to apologise personally to each of you for the disruptions you have experienced”.

O’Leary had accused pilots of being “precious about themselves” and “full of their own self-importance”, saying: “I would challenge any pilot to explain how this is a difficult job or how it is they are overworked, or how anybody who by law can’t fly more than 18 hours a week could possibly be suffering from fatigue.”



He said the comments had been directed at “pilots of competitor airlines and their unions”, a favoured refrain of O’Leary’s when addressing those who have criticised his employment model. “I have the utmost respect and admiration for Ryanair’s pilot team,” he said.

The letter offered a range of improvements to terms and conditions, including salary increases, loyalty bonus payments, improved rostering and better compensation for those pilots forced into working away from their home base.

But it warned pilots against taking alternative employment with other airlines, particularly Norwegian, where hundreds are thought to have decamped. A graph of his rival airline’s tumbling share price, along with some choice financial facts, was appended to the letter.