Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary quits ‘useless’ government Aviation Council over ‘zero action and zero progress’

Airline CEO calls meetings with ministers ‘a complete waste of our time’ – a claim rejected by the government

Future flight: Ryanair Boeing 737 Max at the airline’s main base, London Stansted (Simon Calder)

Europe’s biggest budget airline, Ryanair, has angrily pulled out of the UK Aviation Council – saying the body had achieved “zero action and zero progress” since beginning to meet in February.

In a letter to Baroness Vere, the aviation minister and co-chair of the council, the airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, called the meetings “a complete waste of our time”.

The Aviation Council was set up by the former transport secretary, Grant Shapps, “to ensure that the UK retains one of the strongest and most successful aviation sectors in the world”.

Its aim is to bring together industry and government “to support the delivery and implementation of commitments set out in the Flightpath to the Future” – it described itself as a “strategic framework for the aviation sector that supports the Department for Transport’s vision for a modern, innovative and efficient sector over the next 10 years”.

Ryanair is an Irish airline but its biggest market is in the UK, with London Stansted as its leading base.

But in a scathing open letter to Baroness Vere, Mr O’Leary said “Ryanair has an airline to run” and abruptly withdrew from the council.

He wrote: “During the first meetings of your Aviation Council, you have delivered zero action and no practical measures.”

The Ryanair boss cited proposals that Ryanair had made at the first meeting five months ago on:

• Air-traffic control – more staff and airspace reform
• Improved UK Border processing times
• Reducing UK visa costs by one-third
• Easing ID requirements at UK airports to ease pressure on staffing

After the meeting on Tuesday 11 July, Michael O’Leary wrote: “Regrettably, you reported zero action and zero progress on any of these ‘practical measures’ at today’s meeting.”

Part of the meeting was spent discussing airspace modernisation, but the Ryanair chief executive said the proposals “will deliver no immediate or meaningful reform of the London airspace system, which is inefficient, expensive and imposes chronic delays on airlines and our passengers”.

The letter condemned what Mr O’Leary called “your lamentable absence of any action on any of the practical measures proposed by the airlines to improve aviation”.

It ended: “We hereby confirm our resignation from this useless Council. We will not participate in any further meetings of this Council, which is designed to provide you with a talking shop to create an impression of action, when sadly, you deliver none.”

A government spokesperson said: “Ryanair’s decision is disappointing. The Aviation Council was set up to bring the industry and government together to address shared challenges facing the sector and ensure the UK aviation sector remains one of the strongest and most successful in the world.”

The Independent understands that a number of the issues raised by Ryanair at the first meeting have been addressed by the Department for Transport – with assurances made on air-traffic control staffing and UK Border waiting times.

In Ryanair’s absence, a representative from a different airline will be invited to the next meeting.

Mr O’Leary ended his letter to Baroness Vere by saying: “Ryanair will be happy to re-join the UK Aviation Council at some time in the future when it commits itself to delivering real action and measurable improvements for UK aviation.”