Ryanair has sacked six cabin crew members who were pictured sleeping on a Spanish airport floor last month.
The photo went viral after the crew accused the airline of leaving them stranded in the airport staffroom overnight with no food, drink or place to sleep.
Ryanair said the photograph was "staged" to support what it said was a false claim they were ‘forced to sleep on the floor’
It said all six have now been sacked for gross misconduct that damaged the airline’s reputation and "caused an irreparable breach of trust with these 6 persons.”
The photo was originally posted to the ‘Ryanair Must Change’ group on Facebook with the caption: “This is Porto crew last night stranded on the floor of Málaga crew room. They were diverted due to the storm and the company left them there.”
Ryanair initially apologised to the crew members – noting that it was a Spanish holiday at the time, with hotels in Malaga fully booked.
It said they were later moved to the VIP lounge.
However, it later released CCTV footage which it said proved that the photo was “staged.”
Ryanair exposes fake photo of cabin crew sleeping in crew room. Watch video here: pic.twitter.com/tzTn6EHsKH
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) October 17, 2018
The Portuguese airline union SNPVAC said 24 crew members were sent to the room after the flight was diverted.
It said the crew had no access to food, drinks or even a place to sit down.
It said the Ryanair CCTV “did us all a favour by providing evidence that in fact there were no minimum conditions for their employees to spend the night with dignity.”
“Ryanair demonstrated that everything we published was true,” it said.
