“We announced a few weeks ago that we would have to reduce jobs and some of them will probably be in Portugal, depending on the number of aircraft we have there [to operate]”, said the executive president of Ryanair, Eddie Wilson.

The official stressed that the Ryanair is now “re-evaluating its operations and talking to the unions” in Portugal.

"Our goal is to have agreements or a decision made soon," says Eddie Wilson to Lusa, specifying that this decision will be released "in the coming weeks".

Even so, according to the official, it is already certain that “what will determine this number [of dismissals] will be the total of aircraft based in Portugal”.

"For each aircraft that is removed, about 10 pilot jobs are cut and approximately 20 jobs in the cabin crew", he said.

Asked about which Portuguese bases will be most affected, Eddie Wilson indicates that the air carrier based in Dublin, Ireland, is “looking at everything”.

“We have a substantial operation in Porto, a relatively small operation in Ponta Delgada, we have resized the operation in Faro, and we operate in Lisbon”.

Ryanair advanced on April 1 with a simplified lay-off in Portugal, considering the use of the measure as essential for the preservation of jobs in the country, according to information transmitted at the time to the unions.

And noting that Ryanair is not yet “at the end of that exercise [of re-evaluation]” about its presence in Portugal, as well as in other European countries, Eddie Wilson justifies in advance that this type of measures is based on the covid-19 pandemic , since “the industry is in crisis”.

“We transported 150 thousand passengers in April when we should have transported 30 million”, points out the official, emphasizing the need for Ryanair “to adjust its activity to the new reality”.

"And that is what we will do when we fly again," he says.

And that will happen as of July 1, indicating that the resumption is subject to the lifting of travel restrictions applied to flights within the community.

“What will happen here is that we will have a lower demand and that is why we only resume with 40% of our capacity, which means we have fewer planes and fewer frequencies […] and, in these situations, we have to consider redundancies and cuts in some costs, ”says Eddie Wilson to Lusa.