As the main union representing licensed engineers Prospect has written to the airline seeking urgent talks.

Prospect represents licensed aircraft engineers in many major airlines who do maintenance in the UK including at Easyjet, Flybe and Lufthansa.

Prospect is also calling on other organisations who have traditionally not recognised trade unions to rethink this in light of Ryanair’s move.

Mike Clancy, Prospect general secretary said:

“Prospect will be making every effort to make sure that licenced aircraft engineers in Ryanair have the same opportunity to be recognised as Prospect members as they have in many other airlines.

“Ryanair have rightly woken up to the fact that the benefit to their business to recognise and work with the pilots’ unions, and we will be pressing them to extend this to other staff too.

“Recognising Prospect would help Ryanair by making sure their engineers could have an independent voice and proper representation – something that is especially vital in a safety critical business like aviation.

“People running organisations across the country that don’t recognise trade unions should also think again and recognise the benefits that unions can bring.”