O’Leary: British plans ‘idiotic’
Ryanair boss insists 14-day quarantine measure for air passengers can’t work
PLANS to impose a 14day quarantine on international travellers arriving in the UK are ‘idiotic’ and ‘unimplementable’, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has said.
The chief executive of the no-frills airline yesterday condemned the British government for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and claimed they were ‘making stuff up as they go along’.
Ryanair has cut this year’s target of passenger numbers by almost 50% because of the pandemic. It now expects to fly 80million people in 2020, down from an original target of 154million, and it warned yesterday it would have a €200million loss for the first quarter.
However, it was the plan of UK prime minister Boris Johnson’s government to impose a 14-day quarantine on international visitors that most vexed the outspoken Mr O’Leary.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr O’Leary claimed the UK government has ‘mismanaged the crisis for many weeks’, and said plans to impose a quarantine on international visitors while exempting those arriving from Ireland and France are ‘laughable’.
Mr O’Leary told the show: ‘It’s laughable that [the UK] government can come up with any plans for a quarantine that will be strict and fully enforced when already they are exempting the Irish, the French...
‘It is idiotic and it’s unimplementable. You don’t have enough police in the UK to implement a two-week lockdown. And what’s really worrying is that a two-week lockdown has no medical or scientific basis to it in any event.
‘If you really want to do something that’s effective, wear masks.’
The Ryanair chief believes that people will simply ignore the rules if they are unworkable. ‘As the government puts more meat on the bones of an unimplementable, unmanageable and unpoliceable 14-day lockdown, people will simply ignore something that is so hopelessly defective,’ he said.
Mr O’Leary went on to claim that there is consensus now that wearing face masks helps to eliminate the spread of Covid-19, and that it is the only way to allow people to safely use mass transportation.
‘Without people travelling, you can’t restart the economy,’ he said.
‘They are telling us you can’t fly unless you isolate for 14 days, yet you can go on the London Underground [and] you don’t have to isolate for 14 days. They’re making this stuff up as they go along and none of it has any basis in science.’
Mr O’Leary forecast a ‘domino effect’ of countries scrapping restrictions on travel in June as the tourism industries in countries such as Spain and Portugal lobby to match Italy in allowing foreign tourists to return from June 3.
He said the UK government would likely be ‘embarrassed’ into dropping its plan for a 14day
‘Making it up as they go along’
RYANAIR shares surged 15% yesterday after it announced details of sharp cost cuts and promised a swift return to full capacity and expansion in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis.
The airline, which is due to move from a skeleton service to around half its normal capacity on July 1, said it had seen a ‘significant spike up in bookings’ and suggested it may fly more passengers next year than last year.
Several rivals have indicated they will exit the crisis as smaller airlines.
In talks with staff over cost cuts
quarantine of air travellers arriving from abroad.
Ryanair plans to operate a skeleton fleet until the end of next month and move to about half its normal capacity in July and August, as Mr O’Leary believes that holiday bookings will likely pick up.
Ryanair has unveiled a range of new safety measures that will allow it to resume flights, including the wearing of masks on board aircraft and in terminals.
The airline, Europe’s largest, remains in talks with staff and unions about cost-cutting measures including up to 3,000 job losses, pay cuts of up to 20% and the closure of a number of its bases around Europe.