Ryanair's deal with its 220 pilots got surprisingly little coverage, given that it will put them among the best-paid pilots in the skies. Under the five-year deal, annual pay will rise to over £100,000 (€127,000). And the pilots are getting a major incentive to co-operate with the airline's expansion plans. Each pilot is getting options on about £100,000 worth of Ryanair shares at current prices.

The options, granted at €10 (£7.87) per share, are exercisable in five years. With the shares now trading at over €11, each pilot already has a potential paper profit of just under £14,000. And the performance of the shares to date suggests that the pilots could be in for something of a bonanza when they eventually exercise their options.

At over €11, Ryanair shares are up about 450 per cent on their June 1997 flotation price. They were one of the best performing shares on the Irish market in 2000 and outperformed the London market by 130 per cent.

But chief executive Michael O'Leary is well aware that he needs the co-operation of his pilots to ensure his share price keeps moving north. He has ambitious expansion plans - he wants to double the size of the company over the next three to four years and get passenger numbers up from seven million in 2000 to 14 million.

The deal, which followed a threatened strike by the pilots, involves significant up-front payments for increased productivity and efficiency improvements. Ryanair pilots were considered among the most productive in the industry, turning around planes in 25 minutes and taking up over four flights per day. And the five year tail on the options should keep the pilots with the airline until they can exercise them.

The Ryanair deal is being viewed enviously by pilots in other low-cost airlines, as well as pilots in bigger airlines who fly larger aircraft.