Ryanair warns of economic slump – but plans biggest-ever winter schedule from UK

‘While our recovery and growth are very strong, it is still very fragile,’ says Michael O'Leary

Bold plans: Ryanair expects to fly 225 million passengers by 2025 (Simon Calder)

Despite berating the “stupidity of a hard Brexit”, Ryanair’s chief executive has announced the airline’s biggest-ever UK winter schedule.

Michael O’Leary revealed 21 new routes, taking the total at UK airports to 440.

The biggest expansion is at Birmingham, which is gaining routes to Billund in Denmark, to Grenoble and Toulouse in France, to Santander in Spain, Venice in Italy and the Swedish capital, Stockholm.

Others include London Stansted to Rovaniemi, Bournemouth to Lanzarote and Manchester to the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica.

One of the “new” routes, Liverpool to Rome, simply reflects a move from Ciampino airport outside the Italian capital to the bigger hub, Fiumicino.

By 2025, Ryanair expects to be flying 225 million passengers annually – eight times the 27.5 million it carried at the depths of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr O’Leary insisted that Ryanair would thrive in what is expected to be an economic downturn.

He said: “People in a recession will get much more price sensitive.

“In every other consumer downturn, we’ve grown faster.

“At the bottom end of our customer base, people may travel less. But we will see a much larger number of people trading down from British Airways and easyJet.

“A combination of higher oil prices and a recession will take out some competitors.

“We appear to be the only significant growing airline in Europe.”

The vast majority of Ryanair’s fuel requirements is hedged through to March 2023 at around $63 (£54) per barrel, about 40 per cent lower than the prevailing price.

But the Ryanair boss added a note of caution: “While our recovery and growth are very strong, it is still very fragile and is prone to falling over in the face of adverse developments.”

Mr O’Leary criticised Boris Johnson’s government for ending freedom of movement in the Brexit agreement, which he said was damaging UK aviation by causing “endemic labour shortages”.

“Something has to be done,” he said. “There is no one in the current cabinet capable of doing it. Do a Brexit agreement that makes sense.”

He added: “Grant Shapps [the transport secretary] would be no loss in the transport sector.”

Ryanair is also seeking to tackle online travel agents (OTAs) that, it claims, are overcharging passengers on ancillary items.

The CEO said online travel agents are marking up charges on seats by 130 per cent, by 60 per cent on baggage and 30 per cent on priority boarding.

He gave the example of an allocated seat fee of €10 at Ryanair, which he said would cost €22 from Kiwi and €24 from eDreams.