Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, today (Thurs, 17 Sept) called on the Irish Government to put an end to their chaotic mismanagement of Travel during the Covid-19 crisis. Instead of adopting the EU traffic light system they promised to do only last Tuesday, they have today departed from that policy by taking Italy and Greece from the green list when both countries have Covid rates 60%+ less than Ireland and are also classified under the new EU system as having no travel restrictions within the EU.

Under the new EU travel policy, all EU countries listed below in ‘green’ and ‘orange’ would not have any restrictions. This is another nonsensical decision by this Government who at the same time continue to ignore the Report of their own Aviation Task Force, which has been on Minister Ryan’s desk for over 2 months.

A Ryanair Spokesperson said:

“Today’s announcement shows that the left hand of the Govt doesn’t know what its right hand is doing. There is no scientific basis behind the decision by Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney to remove Italy and Greece from the Green list only to add them back again in 3 weeks time.  

Meanwhile, the Govt continues to ignore the report from its own Aviation Task Force which has been sitting on Minister Ryan’s desk for over 2 months. Over 140,000 people are directly / indirectly employed in Aviation with a further 325,000 employed in Tourism who depend on the aviation sector, and this continual, disjointed and mismanaged approach is putting all of these jobs at risk .

We call on the Government to immediately put in place the EU traffic light system that would see 21 EU countries including Italy and Greece, not requiring any restrictions”.