CAA REPORT SHOWS NATS MISLED PARLIAMENT OVER FLIGHT DELAYS, ENGINEERS AT HOME
AND LACK OF PRE-PLANNING

Ryanair, the UK’s no.1 airline, today (14 Mar) welcomed the CAA’s interim report into NATS’s ATC collapse on 28 Aug last, which disproves false claims made by CEO, Martin Rolfe, in NATS’s “Whitewash” Report published last Sept, including;

1. NATS claimed just 575 flights were “delayed” (approx. 100,000 pass.), but CAA confirms over 700,000 passengers were disrupted.
2. NATS CEO, Martin Rolfe, claimed “engineers worked as quickly as they could”, yet CAA confirms NATS engineers were not at work but were “at home due to the bank holiday”.
3. Under Martin Rolfe’s management, UK NATS has a lack of pre-planning, documentation, and coordination.

Given their mismanagement and incompetence, UK NATS must now reimburse airlines and passengers for the costs they suffered as a result of NATS’s system collapse on 28 Aug last. NATS overpaid CEO (£1.3m p.a.), should now be dismissed and get someone competent to run the UK ATC system for airlines and passengers.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

“Today’s CAA report rubbishes many of the false claims made by NATS in their Sept 2023 “Whitewash” report. The CAA confirms that over 700,000 passengers were impacted, and not just 575 flights (approx. 100,000 passengers), which Martin Rolfe originally claimed in front of the UK Parliament Transport Committee.

The CAA report confirms (unbelievably) that NATS engineers were sitting at home in their pyjamas on the UK’s August bank holiday weekend, which is one of the busiest travel weekends of the year for air travel. In any properly managed ATC service, engineers would be onsite to cover system breakdowns instead of sitting at home unable to log into the system. The fact that key NATS engineers were sitting at home during one of the peak travel weekends, combined with findings that NATS has a fundamental lack of pre-planning, documentation, and coordination, clearly demands senior management changes. Overpaid NATS CEO Martin Rolfe’s position in untenable. He should be removed, and somebody competent employed to run UK ATC, to ensure its engineers are at work during busy weekends and to ensure that UK NATS has a management team delivering a functional ATC system with adequate pre-planning, documentation, and coordination.  

UK airlines and passengers are paying NATS among the highest ATC fees in Europe. In Ryanair’s case, we pay over £100m p.a. and we are entitled to expect an efficient well-run service, rather than mismanagement and incompetence we suffered on 28 Aug 2023 due to the NATS system collapse. It’s time for Martin Rolfe to go, and if he won’t quit, then Transport Secretary Mark Harper (who owns 49% of NATS) should remove him.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (11 Mar) renewed its partnership with Vistair, a market leading provider of advanced Operational Content Management and Safety Management Systems for the aviation industry, for a further 5 years. As part of this renewed agreement, Ryanair will continue to use Vistair’s industry leading document management system, DocuNet, to streamline the creation, distribution, and maintenance of operational manuals as the airline continues to grow to 800 aircraft and 300 million passengers by 2034.

Ryanair’s Chief Operating Officer, Neal McMahon, said:

“We are pleased to announce a 5 year extension to our longstanding partnership with Vistair. As Europe’s No.1 airline, Vistair’s reliable and efficient document management system, DocuNet, has helped us maintain operational efficiency and responsiveness across our vast fleet and complex operations. DocuNet continues to meet our high expectations, contributing to our ongoing strong operational performance ensuring that Ryanair remains at the forefront of operational and compliance standards as we continue to grow to 800 aircraft and 300 million passengers by 2034.”

Dominic Clarke, Chief Commercial Officer at Vistair, added:

“We are delighted to extend our partnership with Ryanair. The renewal of this agreement reflects the trust Ryanair places in Vistair and DocuNet. As Europe’s largest airline group, superior operational performance is paramount. We look forward to continuing to support Ryanair in achieving operational excellence and maintaining the highest standards of compliance.”

In January 2024, Vistair and Comply365 announced their merger creating a leading global provider of compliance, safety and data intelligence technologies serving the aviation, defence, and rail industries.

USELESS GREEN MINISTER RYAN SHOULD “GROW…OR GO”

Ryanair today (Fri 8^th Mar), called on Ireland’s Transport Minister, Eamon Ryan, to “Grow or Go” as Spanish airport operator AENA yesterday unveiled plans to accelerate its traffic growth by 10% from 283m passengers in 2023 to 310m passengers by 2026. Over that same 4 years, Dublin Airport will stagnate under its 32m passenger cap, while Irish Transport Minister Eamon Ryan refuses to act.

TRAFFIC GROWTH	DUB APT	SPAIN’S APTS
2023	32m	283m
2024	32m	294m
2025	32m	300m
2026	32m	310m
GROWTH	0%	+10%

Minister Ryan’s National Aviation Policy commits him to grow routes, connectivity, tourism and jobs at Irish airports but all he has delivered after 4 years is a traffic cap at Dublin, which is sending Ireland’s aviation growth to Italy and Poland.

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“While Spain’s traffic, tourism, and jobs grow thanks to Ryanair’s investment in new aircraft and new routes, Dublin Airport stagnates under a 15 year old, outdated, traffic cap, and the idle failure of Transport Minister Eamon Ryan to take any action to deliver his own aviation growth strategy. Green Minister Eamon Ryan won’t intervene, won’t grow, and his inaction means 4 years of stagnation in Irish aviation & tourism while Spain and other EU airports continues to grow, thanks to Ryanair’s investment. The message is clear for Irish aviation and Irish tourism, which has become the laughing stock of Europe; Minister Eamon Ryan should either Grow…. or Go.”

Following Ryanair’s purchase of 500 tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from OMV in October last, the airline has today (8^th Mar) announced that it will take an additional 500 tonnes of SAF from OMV in 2024. This agreement will save a further 1,250+ tonnes in CO₂ emissions (equivalent to c.100 Ryanair flights from Dublin to Vienna). 

Under Ryanair and OMV’s MOU agreement, Ryanair has unique access to purchase up to 160,000 metric tonnes of SAF from OMV up to 2030.

Ryanair’s Director of Sustainability, Tom Fowler, said:

“We’re delighted to be taking an additional 500 tonnes of SAF from OMV this year, in addition to the 500 tonnes we agreed in October last. SAF plays a key role in our Pathway to Net Zero decarbonisation strategy in which we have committed to increasing our use of over the coming years – a commitment that this deal with OMV will help move further forward. OMV is a key partner for Ryanair in Austria, Germany and Romania and we look forward to growing this partnership as Europe’s largest airline group.”

Ryanair, Ireland’s favourite airline, today (Wed 6^th Mar) called on Green Transport Minister, Eamon Ryan, to explain why he won’t intervene in the planning process to scrap the 32m Dublin Airport cap when he had no problem intervening in the planning for the Shannon LNG facility in 2022 (see copy attached). Ryanair looks forward to its first meeting with Minister Ryan tomorrow (Thurs 7^th Mar) at its Airside offices. Ryanair will be asking Minister Ryan to explain why he won’t intervene in the Dublin traffic cap planning process, why he is failing to deliver his National Aviation Policy which is to grow traffic, tourism, and jobs, and why he is squandering Ireland’s ETS revenues on school buses (a Dept of Education budget) rather than investing in greening Irish aviation.

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan must take urgent action to scrap the Dublin Airport traffic cap, especially when Dublin has recently opened a 2^nd runway taking capacity to 60m but aviation and jobs growth is being blocked by an artificial 32m traffic cap.  

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“We look forward to our first meeting with Transport Minister Ryan tomorrow. We look forward to explaining Ryanair’s plan to grow Irish traffic by 50% over the next 6 years to 2030; our plan to reach net zero by 2050; and asking Minister Ryan when he plans to take action to scrap Dublin’s absurd traffic cap by intervening as he did in the Shannon LNG planning process in 2022; and when he will start using Irish passenger ETS revenues of over €200m p.a. to incentivise Ireland’s supply of SAF’s rather than subsidising the Dept of Education school bus budget.

We look forward to hearing Minister Ryan’s plans to deliver growth under his National Aviation Policy, when sadly for 4 years he doesn’t appear to have any growth plans.”

INDUSTRY-LEADING ROUTE NETWORK, FREQUENCIES, AND FARES FOR CORPORATE TRAVEL

Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, today (6^th Mar) announced a new partnership agreement with corporate travel distributor, Kyte, which will enable Kyte’s network of corporate travel partners to access Ryanair’s industry leading low fares and network of over 3,600 daily flights (including key city connections) across 235+ destinations with regular morning and evening services ensuring efficient low-cost travel for businesses. 

This partnership will provide Ryanair with streamlined access to the travel ecosystem, including a vast array of corporate travel partners, without the need for legacy GDSs, while Kyte’s network of corporate travel partners benefit from Kyte’s advanced new technology solution, which effectively supports Ryanair’s content and functionality within their own web, mobile, and alternative portals for a seamless corporate customer experience.

Ryanair’s Dara Brady said:

“We are pleased to announce our exciting new partnership with Kyte, which will enable Kyte’s corporate travel partners to access Ryanair’s industry leading network of 3,600 daily flights across 235+ destinations, our regular schedules which cater perfectly for business travel, unrivalled on-time performance, and our budget-friendly low fares all through Kyte’s state-of-the art distribution technology.

We look forward to working further with Kyte over the coming years as Ryanair continues to grow to carry 300m passengers p.a. by 2034.”

Alice Ferrari, CEO & Co-founder KYTE added:

“As the airline industry transitions to API distribution this announcement demonstrates Ryanair’s progressive mindset around supporting new technologies. I’m extremely proud that Ryanair has chosen Kyte as their first official non-GDS distribution partner.

We are excited to be working with Ryanair in delivering easy access to the airline’s convenient low-cost travel to our corporate travel partners thanks to Kyte’s modern and standardised interface. Ryanair’s content via the Kyte channel will also be made available on our partner desktop solutions such as AirGateway.

This partnership demonstrates our commitment to helping airlines like Ryanair broaden their reach and open new and relevant revenue streams, on their terms.”