Pilots working at Ryanair’s Eindhoven base, scheduled for closure on November 6, have taken the Irish low-cost carrier to court in a bid to block their transfer to bases in other countries and take a stance in the continuing labor unrest that has plagued the company for almost a year. A judge will hear the case Thursday in a court in Den Bosh, Holland.

Dutch pilots’ union VNV dismisses Ryanair’s assertion it decided to close the crew base with its four Boeing 737-800s due to deteriorating market conditions and claims the real reason lies with reprisal for the previously organized strikes. “They are creating fear and sending a very clear message to the rest of the network across Europe: if you strike we will retaliate,” VNV spokesman Joost van Doesburg told AIN.  

Under Dutch law, a company may close a facility and transfer employees abroad for ponderous economic interests. “But we do not see those as a sufficient reason for closing the Eindhoven base. Ryanair will continue operating most routes to and from the airport,” van Doesburg pointed out. In total, 49 pilots will feel the effects of the base closure though only 16 decided to sue Ryanair, he acknowledged. “There is a wait-and-see attitude by some; others have already started looking for another job,” said van Doesburg.

Ryanair adamantly declared its sole Dutch base will close as scheduled next month. “Our pilots have been offered jobs elsewhere in the network. If they choose not to transfer, then we will respect their wishes, but there will be no jobs remaining at Eindhoven,” the airline told AIN in an emailed statement.

Ryanair announced earlier this month it would close two bases—Eindhoven and Bremen in Germany—and scale back the number of 737s based at Niederrhein, Germany, to three aircraft from five as part of its profit and growth downgrade for the financial year ending March 31, 2019. It lowered its outlook, citing lower traffic and weaker forward booking caused by coordinated pilot/cabin crew strikes in Germany, Holland, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal as well as higher fuel prices.

The base closures, however, did not sit well with pilots, prompting the Brussels-based European Cockpit Association (ECA) to describe them as “as a declaration of war to the crew across the whole network” and demanding the “immediate withdrawal” of the decision. “It is hard to see how Ryanair can realistically expect to reach agreements with its unions with such threats hanging in the air,” warned ECA president Dirk Polloczek.

Meanwhile, just two weeks after announcing the German cuts, Ryanair Wednesday announced it would open its tenth base in Germany and its second in Berlin, at Tegel airport from April 2019 with four aircraft. The Tegel base technically doesn’t count as new because the LCC will take over the operations of LaudaMotion, the Vienna-based affiliate in which it owns a 75 percent stake. It also said it would open 24 new routes, bringing its network total to 280 routes in the country.