Website visitors are wondering why we show a flag of the USA? Well, this is global news of relevance for Ryanair staff: Southwest Airlines recently posted higher first-quarter earnings again. Net profit rose to $93 million from $61 million in the same period last year. What is important about this figure is their impact for staff.

For 33 years Southwest employees have benefited from profits that Southwest enjoyed.  In 2006, for example employees on average received almost 8% of their earnings in profit sharing monies. Our opinion? This is a major low cost airline making a profit, and then sharing the profit with the people who work very hard to achieve it. Easyjet staff participate in a profit sharing scheme as well. Needless to say, both Southwest and Easyjet do have a strong union representation. We want Ryanair staff to enjoy similar benefits, and a strong trade union can negotiate for that.