Flight bans have “fucking zero” chance of success, Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary said Thursday.
“What’s the likelihood of there being some success of banning flying? Fucking zero,” he told reporters at Airlines for Europe’s annual meeting of airline CEOs.
“We’ve had all this bullshit here in Brussels for the last 10 years, whether it’s flight-shaming this, or some other thing that,” he said.
France is so far the only country in Europe to introduce a ban on domestic short-haul flights when there’s a decent rail alternative (although in reality it affects very few journeys). But it’s an idea that’s gained traction with ministers in Austria, Belgium and Spain in recent years.
But O’Leary reckons that customers in most parts of Europe won’t turn away from air travel, even if prices go up.
“Europe is not going to put up with being told ‘you can’t fly.’ We get lectured by the Dutch, the Belgians, the French [and] you have to re-educate them on the geography of Europe. You can’t get a train from Ireland to Europe. You can’t get a train from Portugal to Europe. The Poles, the Romanians, the Slovakians and the Czechs are not having it either,” he said.
O’Leary also took aim at the plan by the Netherlands to introduce a flight cap at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, which is aimed at reducing noise pollution.
“The Dutch are mad. OK,” he said.
O’Leary also criticized “madcap” plans by Italy to introduce maximum pricing on flights, as well as a push from France for a minimum price in the EU.
He said the outlook for air travel was “much more negative” five years ago but argued that the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to move millions of Ukrainian refugees following Russia’s invasion had softened the public’s attitude to aviation.
Thursday’s visit to Brussels proved a better trip to the Belgian capital for O’Leary than his most recent stopover in September, when he was pied in the face by activists who told him: “Welcome in Belgium!” later adding: “Stop the pollution of your fucking planes.”
