Ryanair boss optimistic for summer 2021 but says ‘winter’s a write-off’

‘We are poised I think at the dawn of an extraordinary era of growth’, said Michael O'Leary

Ryanair boss is optimistic about 2021 (Ryanair)

“Mrs O'Leary is very keen to get back to the Algarve, and I suspect she’ll be there about 2.5 nanoseconds after the coronavirus restrictions are lifted,” said the boss of Europe’s biggest budget airline.

Ryanair’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said: “She hasn’t had a holiday now for over 12 months. I think she is reflective of the overwhelming majority of Europe’s population.”

The Irish billionaire was speaking at a virtual event at the World Travel Market – in which he said: “We are poised I think at the dawn of an extraordinary era of growth.

“There’s going to be an enormous snap-back in travel demand.

“We’re keeping the pilots current, we’re keeping the cabin crew current, we’re keeping the aircraft current, so really we can pounce on growth.”

But he warned that the next few months will be very tough for the aviation industry: “This winter’s a write-off. Our booking profile, which would normally be run over a 12- to 15-week period is now down to basically four or five weeks.

“November’s normally a bad time of the year anyway. The real issue for us as an industry is: can we rescue some level of recovery for Christmas, and after that, nothing I think will happen until we get to probably Easter.”

He said the optimistic reports on vaccines gave him “reasonable optimism now that summer 2021 will get back to some degree of normality”.

“There’s going to be a wave of vaccines coming at us, certainly licensed this side of Christmas, widely available for high-risk groups by the end of Q1 [March 2021]

“In short-haul, I see no reason why we won’t go back to 75 to 80 per cent of 2019.

“The only restriction on us will be the ability to hire and train pilots and cabin crew and have them current, and I think we’ll do that better than any other airline.”

“There’s a real sense of optimism that we’ll get the high risk groups, over-70s, healthcare workers, essential services covered off in advance of summer 2021.

“Then it’s a case of how quickly can the airlines recover and get capacity back in the air.”

Mr O’Leary indicated that fares would be below the levels of the last “normal” summer, in 2019.

“The volume recovery will be quite strong, particularly in those markets where governments are sensible and reduce airport taxes and fees,” he said.

“It will take three or four years for pricing to recover to 2019 levels.”

The Ryanair boss was critical of what he called "the incompetence of European governments when it came to putting in place mass testing” – particularly of the prime minister.

“Boris Johnson in the UK promised we’d have a world-class tracking, testing and tracing system. Of course like every other Boris Johnson promise complete and utter vacuous rubbish.”

The Independent has asked No 10 for a response.

Mr O’Leary also said that Wizz Air of Hungary will emerge as “the next best to Ryanair” because easyJet will see its cost base increase.

Until 2020, easyJet was Ryanair’s closest rival and had more than twice as many passengers each year than Wizz Air.