Two dozen Ryanair crew members were allegedly forced to sleep on the floor of an airport office in Spain over the weekend.
In a photo shared by the Facebook group Ryanair MUST Change on Sunday, at least six crew members can be seen lying on the floor of an office space.
Portuguese airline union SNPVAC provided details in a statement Monday, reporting that at least four Porto-bound flights were diverted to Malaga on Saturday due to Tropical Storm Leslie.
"Upon arrival to Malaga Airport, the 24 crew (eight pilots and 16 cabin crew) were placed in a room, without the minimum rest facilities, where the crew that is based on that airport perform their briefings and where Ryanair has their Malaga offices," the Facebook post read.
"The 24 crew members were there since 01:30 until 06:00 (local time) without access to food, drinks and even a place to sit down, as there were only eight seats available for the 24 crew," the union added. "They had no other choice, as the photo illustrates than to attempt to rest on the room's floor."
Ryanair's Chief Operations Officer Peter Bellew defended the airline in a response on social media, apologizing but noting the crew members were eventually moved to a VIP lounge.
In a follow-up statement to TravelPulse, the Irish low-cost carrier called the photo "staged" and "fake news" based on video footage showing crew members lying on the floor briefly to pose for a photo.
"The publication of this video reveals the facts and exposes the SNPVAC union fake news/false claims," Ryanair said. "This video proves that the original picture was staged and no crew 'slept on the floor.' All Ryanair offices and crew rooms are equipped for security reasons with CCTV cameras and notifications of same as required by GDPR."
"Due to storms in Porto a number of flights diverted to Malaga," Ryanair said in an earlier statement to the BBC. "As this was a Spanish national holiday, hotels were fully booked. The crew spent a short period of time in the crew room before being moved to a VIP lounge, and returned to Porto the next day."
SNPVAC said it planned to issue a formal complaint to civil aviation authorities.
"We expect an urgent and robust intervention so that events like this won't happen again," the union said.
The latest drama comes on the heels of a wave of negative headlines involving Ryanair. The beleaguered airline recently dealt with multiple worker strikes, had customer compensation checks bounce and saw several passengers hospitalized after one of its aircraft lost cabin pressure mid-flight.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
