Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has hit out at the operator of Dublin and Cork airports, the daa, dismissing its €5.6 billion plan to expand Dublin Airport as “gobbledygook”.
Speaking to the media this afternoon, he said the plan was the equivalent in spending terms of two children’s hospitals without adding additional runways or terminal buildings.
He said the daa ultimately planned to double passenger fees, which he said would be the equivalent of another passenger cap in terms of deterring passengers from wanting to fly through Dublin airport.
He said such a fee would impact low-cost airlines more than long-haul flights, which can more easily be absorbed in their fares.
Mr O’Leary said that if such a fee rise came into place, Ryanair would simply “stop growing at Dublin Airport. In fact, some of the existing capacity growth to Dublin will come to an end”.
He said there were many more airports all over Europe that were cutting their fees and building much more efficient facilities.
Asked about the comments made by the head of the International Air Transport Association, Willie Walsh, who warned that the price of flights would go up as airlines would no longer be able to absorb the impact that the war on Iran is having on the price of jet fuel, Mr O’Leary said supplies of jet fuel to Europe had improved.
“Europe is now getting all its jet fuel supplies for America, Norway and West Africa. So, I think there’s very little risk of disruption to supply. The big challenge facing the airlines is that the price of jet fuel has doubled. Ryanair, we’re 80% hedged at about $67 until March next year.”
He said Ryanair would not be cancelling flights as it had the best fuel hedging.
However, he said if the crisis dragged on for years, there would be dramatically higher airfares.
“There’ll only be about two airlines left flying in Europe. If we try, Ryanair will be one of them, if everybody hasn’t gone bust. The economy will be, you know, will fall into deep, dark depression, recession. But that’s a bit too pessimistic.”
However, he said everyone should be wary of making long-term predictions.
“By March of next year, most people, including even Trump and the Iranians, think this war will be over by the time we get to March next year, because one, the Iranian regime would have fallen, or two, Trump will have lost the midterm elections in November.”
Passenger cap concerns
The daa recently set out plans to expand Ireland’s biggest airport between next year and 2031, allowing it to handle around 45 million passengers a year, from 36.4 million last year.
Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien is expected to make an order to amend the current cap of 32 million passengers per year that is currently in place, and he could also legislate to prevent further caps.
But Ryanair has accused the Government of taking too long to make this decision.
“We are really deeply worried that this government, 18 months after they promised to scrap the cap as soon as possible, that they still won’t have passed the legislation by the end of June,” Mr O’Leary said.
“Then they take over the EU presidency, and Micheál Martin will do nothing for the second six months of this year except wine and dine his pals in Europe, no legislation will get done here in Ireland.”
He said the cap should have been removed 12 months ago and accused Mr Martin of being a “do nothing” Taoiseach.
In a statement today, the Department of Transport said that lifting the Dublin airport passenger cap was a key commitment in the Programme for Government and a priority for the Minister for Transport.
The Department said the minister had “acted swiftly and decisively on that commitment” and was now in the final stages of bringing the relevant legislation to Government, to empower him to make an order to amend or revoke the passenger cap.
The statement continued: “Lifting the cap is critically important for our country, in terms of ensuring that connectivity can be maintained and to facilitate further sustainable growth at the airport.”
Although the Oireachtas Transport Committee recently called for the minister’s powers to be curbed in this area and for the government to carry out an environmental and climate impact assessment of plans to remove the cap.
Today, Mr O’Leary claimed that the new funding plan for the daa would double what Dublin Airport charges airlines for passengers to €40 per person.
However, the daa said that passenger charges, which are currently just over €10 per departing passenger, are set by the regulator, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA).
It said any future rise for next year is dependent on a number of conditions under review by the daa and is only expected to result in a potential charge of €13 or €14 euro.
O’Leary says he would like to see third terminal at Dublin Airport
Ryanair said bookings remain up this summer with growth so far this year at 4%, but it said it was having to stimulate customer demand as people get nervous about booking their travel.
It said it was due to announce a multi-billion euro profit when it publishes its results on Monday.
“Three or four months out we’re having to incentivise, open up a little bit of pricing to stimulate bookings. There’s hestiancy out there. Lots of people are unsure yet if you’re travelling in June and July, can I go long haul? Are the Gulf carriers operating?” said Michael O’Leary.
He said Ryanair was also opposed to the daa investment in air bridges and lounges which it said its passengers would not use.
“They want cheap fares and they move faster in the rain than when it’s not raining,” he joked.
“Nobody wants to spend any time in lounges. Short haul is all about the price and getting through the airport quickly.”
Instead, Mr O’Leary said he would like to see the expansion of Pier 1 with another 14 gates or an independently run third terminal that would compete with what he said was a daa monopoly.
In a statement this evening, the daa said Ryanair’s claims about no capacity growth at Dublin Airport were wrong.
It said the proposed new Pier 5 under the plan had the capacity to support an extra three million passengers a year, the majority of which would be inbound US tourists, whilst it said the proposed new Pier 1 East had the capacity to support an extra seven million passengers per annum.
It said: “Dublin Airport’s role is to deliver a high-quality experience for all passengers and airline partners – not just the one that shouts the loudest.”
The daa also said it was not spending €7 million euro on “wildflowers” as claimed by Michael O’Leary, but that this money would be spent on the “replacement of lost habitat”, which it said was “a mandatory environmental mitigation and habitat restoration programme, required to support future airport development and to secure planning approval for critical infrastructure projects”.
A daa spokesperson said: “As Dublin Airport expands, existing greenfield and brownfield areas will be developed for operational infrastructure such as aircraft stands, taxiways, aprons, and terminal-related facilities – the type of infrastructure that Ryanair is crying out for so they can grow.
“Under Irish and EU environmental legislation, these impacts must be mitigated through compensatory habitat creation, biodiversity enhancement, and river catchment restoration measures.”
Ryanair also described the European Parliament idea that airlines should allow passengers a second cabin bag for free on board as “loony” and he said the extra bags would not fit on board.
He said the ETS, the EU’s emissions trading system was also a taxation on air travel within the EU that carriers flying outside it did not have to pay.
Asked if the airline should do more to decarbonise as its emissions increase along with passenger numbers, he said he was already spending €30bn investing in new aircraft which he said included Boeing Max 10s that he said would have “20% more seats and burn 20% less fuel.”
He said by this summer Ryanair would have 29 additional aircraft, but was waiting on the delivery of more of its original order from Boeing.
He hoped he would have the first 15 of the new Max 10 aircraft by the Spring of 2027 in time for next summer, which he said would be kept in Dublin and Stansted, close to the maintance base and where training will be carried out.
“So people in Dublin next year will be the first people travelling on Max 10 aircraft,” he said.
He said he expected the first in-house Ryanair maintenance and engine shot to be built by 2029 probably on the continental Europe in Spain, Italy, Poland or the Baltic States.
