Why joining Ryanair could be the best move you ever make
Let me start off this post with a simple disclaimer, everything I go on to say about Ryanair is based on my personal experience over 9 years working here and I would just like to give you my view on why I feel Ryanair is the perfect way to start your cabin crew career.
We have all heard the negative stories about Ryanair, and more recently how they treat their crew. I am not here to explain what really happened to the crew in Malaga that were photographed sleeping on the floor (yes, I really know what happened.) Or the bad reputation that the airline has for extra costs and the low-cost business model.
There are a lot of positives to take away while working with Ryanair and here I will go through a lot of things people don’t see or realise.
To start with…
The reason I chose to work with Ryanair is the huge selection on bases they have here in Europe.
Ryanair are a point to point airline, meaning under normal circumstances you will always return to where you started you day, your base. That means that we are able to set up a normal life based on what base you have, like for example live in your own home, sleep in your own bed every night, meet your friends from close by, join a gym or sports team as you know you will always end up back home and not sleeping in hotels around the world. This was a huge benefit for me, first because it allowed me to be based all around Europe and actually live and learn from the country I was in.
I started in Brussels and learnt French, then I went to Bari and learnt Italian, then I moved to Spain and enjoyed living in Barcelona, Mallorca and Alicante. All of these base transfers where on my request, and yes, I was pretty lucky with the bases and moved at the right time.
The second big reason to why Ryanair is worth working for is…
It one of the very few airlines that offer a fixed roster, meaning you working days are set in stone (now they have changed this slightly to add some flexidays) but basically it meant that we work 5 days and off 3 days. So, you can use a calendar and count 5, 3 and know when you will be off in 2 years’ time if you like. This is useful to plan Christmas, big holidays or weddings etc so you will always know when you are working. Just to let you know we work one week on earlies and the next week on lates, so the week we are on earlies we can finish around 13.00 and have the rest of that afternoon off too.
And the third big reason…
I only discovered while actually flying with Ryanair. It’s the fact that other airlines consider Ryanair cabin crew to be the soldiers of the sky. By that I mean our safety training is very good, and we have to deal with the hardest passengers in Europe. And we are pushed to sell a lot onboard and squeezed like lemons when it comes to the bar service (they make us take the trolley out 10 minutes after take-off where other airlines at least wait until they are in the cruise phase. So, because of this when a Ryanair employee turns up to an interview to another airline, we basically get hired straight away above other candidates because of this reputation.
Every airline has its pros and cons, and yes, we all know the bad fame that Ryanair has. Just think of it as the perfect stepping stone to kick start your cabin crew career.
They are constantly hiring all over Europe, apply, do a year or two and then move on to a better company. If you prefer to the low-cost companies then EasyJet will always take a former Ryanair employee…but with a year or two of experience in Ryanair the world is your oyster, you can basically choose any airline you desire.
