‘You had one job to do’, Ryanair tells airports amid travel chaos

RYANAIR has blamed airports for causing a wave of holiday travel chaos because they failed to hire enough staff.

Neil Sorahan, the airline’s chief financial officer, said airports “had one job to do, and that was to make sure they had sufficient handlers and security staff ”.

He told the BBC: “We managed to staff up 73 additional aircraft well in advance, and it is incumbent on the airports to get their planning better next year.”

It is the latest clash between airlines and airports amid widespread staff shortages that have caused long delays and cancellations for passengers this summer.

Lord Deighton, chairman of Heathrow, has blamed carriers for the misery, saying they had failed to attract enough baggage handlers with higher wages.

Airlines have also been battling the threat of strike action, but Ryanair said it had agreed deals with unions representing more than 80pc of its pilots and about 70pc of cabin crews.

It came as Ryanair swung to a profit, but warned of a “fragile” recovery ahead. The budget airline posted net profit of €170m (£145m) in the three months to the end of June, up from a loss of €273m a year earlier. Ryanair has cashed in on pent-up demand for holidays, but it said bookings continued to be made closer to the date of travel than before the pandemic and warned there was “zero visibility” for the second half of the year, when it tends to make a loss.

Mr Sorahan added: “The recovery into the winter is fragile and is very subject to whatever the news flows are around Covid and Ukraine.”

Michael O’leary, chief executive of Ryanair, said: “Our experience with Omicron last November, and the Ukraine invasion in February, shows how fragile the air travel market remains.”