Ryanair to cut pay, as many as 3,000 jobs due to travel slowdown

May 18 (UPI) -- Ireland-based Ryanair says it may end up cutting thousands of jobs due to economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

The discount airline said in an earnings report Monday that most of its fleet has been grounded since mid-March, which reduced full-year traffic by five million travelers.

Ryanair said it anticipates operating less than 1 percent of its scheduled flights in the quarter from April to June and hopes to fly more than 50 percent of its flights in the following quarter.

The company said it won't take government aid and it has already begun to make labor cutbacks.

"Unlike many flag carrier competitors, Ryanair will not request or receive state aid," the company said. "Consultations about base closures, pay cuts of up to 20 percent, unpaid leave and up to 3,000 job cuts (mainly pilots and cabin crew) are underway with our people and our unions."

The airline said profits had increased by 13 percent for the last fiscal year, which ended in March before the full impact of the coronavirus crisis arrived.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary criticized European restrictions that called for a 14-day quarantine for some passengers on inbound flights. Some have since been eased.

"They removed this idiotic 14-day isolation that is both unimplementable and unmanageable, in favor of using masks and temperature checks," O'Leary told CNBC, calling the proposed quarantine "a joke."

O'Leary said he's hoping to dissuade British officials from imposing their own 14-day quarantine.

"The government has no idea what they are talking about," he said. "They say it is based on science but then [they] can't explain why you're exempting the Irish and the French."