The low-cost airline Ryanair apparently has a sales problem in its home market of Ireland, of all places. CEO Michael O'Leary said in an interview that the booking numbers in the island state were terrible.

He also attributes this to the very strict quarantine regulations. In Germany and Italy, on the other hand, Ryanair is seeing growing demand, which he attributes to the free tests after the return home. Michael O'Leary believes that the various travel restrictions and complicated entry requirements in many European countries would have a hard time affecting the entire airline industry.

Meanwhile, operations manager Neal McMahon said in an interview with Reuters that the originally planned downsizing will be smaller. The reason for this is that it was possible to agree on savings packages in numerous countries. As of August 21, 2020, 97 percent of the pilots and 90 percent of the cabin crew would have accepted the so-called paycuts and changes to their employment contracts.

In May 2020, Michael O'Leary said that Ryanair will most likely have to cut around 3.000 flight crew members. Specifically, he also said that it would hit those who do not agree to the changes and the associated wage cuts, which make up 20 percent. This is what happened at the subsidiary Lauda: All flight employees who did not give their consent to the new collective agreement in Austria were dismissed. On this occasion, they drove through the administration with the “iron broom” and also parted with many employees in this division.

Lauda also dismissed all employees in Düsseldorf who did not respond with "I accept" and, according to reports, others as well. In Stuttgart all employees were sent the “blue letter” and, absurdly enough, some weeks later received a job offer from Lauda Europe Ltd. for Düsseldorf.

In Palma de Mallorca, Lauda workers voted for lower wages. At Ryanair itself, an agreement could only be reached on August 20, 2020, but only with the pilots. There is still no agreement on cabin crew as the union does not want to endorse the pilots' degrees. 

In Germany, Belgium and Italy, the savings packages from Ryanair and Malta Air are not yet wrapped up either. A vote is currently underway in Italy, while negotiations are still ongoing in Germany and Belgium.