Ryanair, historically known as a low-cost airline, has declared that there is no risk of the European Union introducing minimum prices or limits on flights, as this would disadvantage pooper people – a politically impossible move.
According to Eddie Wilson, the head of Ryanair DAC, it would be ‘politically impossible’ for the EU to impose a minimum pricing or a cap on air travel for the next five to ten years.
People need connectivity to fly anything over 5-600 kilometres and get there quickly, and it’s not about holidays or discretionary travel. Air travel is a necessity for a lot of things.
The comments follow the Dutch government’s decision to move on with the plans to cut the number of flights operated at the Schiphol airport in an effort to reduce noise pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
The decision included cutting aircraft movements at this hub to 460,000 on an annual basis. The Dutch government will impose the measure once it is approved by the EU.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has criticized the Dutch government for deciding to carry on with the aircraft movement reduction and pointed out that this is being done at the expense of the economy and that they would be taking legal action against the government. ACI Europe also harshly criticized the move and highlighted that this measure could impact air travelling next year – which is not ideal as the industry was recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, the French Transport Minister, Clement Baune, last week asked other EU members to join the initiative to set a minimum price on flights in Europe as a countermeasure to reduce the aviation sector’s contribution to climate change. The EU Officials told Reuters that countries like the Netherlands and Belgium might support France in this decision.
Ryanair, Europe’s largest in terms of passenger numbers, believes instead that the airline industry should reduce its carbon emissions to zero by increasing the use of sustainable aviation fuels and flying in larger and less noisy aircraft.
It’s not going to be done overnight, and it’s not going to be done by things like the French making headlines, saying we’re going to ban this; we’re going to bring minimum pricing in. All that is saying is that poor people can’t travel, and that generally doesn’t fly in France.
The number of passengers travelling with Ryanair from 2011 to 2022 has been on a constant upward curve, starting with 75.8 million passengers in 2011 to 148.6 million passengers in 2019. However, this figure dropped to 27.5 million in 2020 due to COVID-19, to later increase to 97 million passengers in 2021/2022.
