DUBLIN, IRELAND — Unacceptable behaviour Towards female pilots Leads to chief pilot's termination at Ryanair.


Ryanair has terminated the chief pilot of its primary Irish-registered operations following an investigation that found continual unacceptable misconduct towards female junior pilots within the firm.

According to a high-ranking company source, a memo was sent to Ryanair DAC's employees—responsible for managing Ryanair's Irish-registered aircraft—on Tuesday night announcing the chief pilot's termination. Darrell Hughes, Ryanair’s chief people officer, signed the memo, though the terminated individual was not identified.

Aidan Murray has served as Ryanair DAC's chief pilot for the previous three years. However, he was unreachable for immediate comment.

The termination decision came in the aftermath of an investigation which detected continuous unacceptable and inappropriate conduct towards several female junior pilots, violating the company's harassment policy. The memo quoted, “We are determined to ensure all of our people come to work in a safe and secure environment.” It further called for the privacy of the women who courageously came forward during the investigation to be respected.

The chief pilot, who infrequently flies and is in charge of implementing new safety regulations, promotions, and handling other organizational issues, was found sending sexualized text messages to seven female pilots, aged between 21 and 32, according to a Ryanair insider familiar with the investigation. The investigation was triggered by an anonymous tip-off. Some of the female pilots were asked to share explicit photos of themselves, and several had their schedules changed to fly with him.

Ryanair DAC owns aircraft that constitute about 40 per cent of Ryanair’s operations, which includes all the operations of aircraft based in Ireland, the UK, Spain and Portugal. There have been no criminal allegations or arrests in this case.

Ryanair refrained from commenting on matters related to individual employees.

The insider mentioned that the company had consulted with the involved women to ascertain whether other senior male staff had similarly approached them, but no such issues were reported.

Following the dismissal on Tuesday, the chief pilot has seven days to appeal the decision.

The Irish Aviation Authority chose not to comment on its communications with "regulated entities".