Ryanair sacks cabin crew for fake photo

Ryanair has sacked six cabin crew staff after they allegedly staged a photo showing themselves sleeping on an airport floor.

The staff were accused of gross misconduct in creating the photo, which was shared widely on various social media platforms, as well as being reported by major news outlets across the world.

However, the budget airline later published a video from security cameras allegedly showing the crew moving to a corner of the crew room away from where they were originally sitting and lying down. One crew member then appears to take a photograph.

The crew was grounded in the early hours of October 13 in Malaga airport, on the south coast of Spain, because of storms in the Portuguese city, Porto.

Ryanair claimed there were no hotel rooms in Malaga available for staff because of the Hispanic Day national holiday, which falls on October 12.

Ryanair said its crew were in the crew room for “a short period of time” before moving to a VIP lounge in the airport. They returned to Porto the next day, and did not work on the flight back.

Airline cabin crew are entitled to “adequate” rest before and during shifts, although the extent of rest required is often a point of contention between airlines and staff.

The photograph of Ryanair staff on the airport floor was published on social media. Ryanair has faced significant issues with staff strikes. The Irish airline has officially recognised multiple European unions over the course of this year in a bid to improve relations.

A Ryanair spokesperson said: “All six cabin crew members in Porto were dismissed on November 5 for breach of contract on grounds of gross misconduct, after staging a fake photograph to support a false claim (widely reported in international media outlets) that they were ‘forced to sleep on the floor’ of the Malaga crew room.”

The airline described the photo as “behaviour which damaged their employer’s reputation and caused an irreparable breach of trust with these six persons”.