UK’S LARGEST AIRLINE REFUSES TO WASTE TIME AT A “TALKING SHOP” WHICH DELIVERS NO ACTION OR REFORM FOR UK PASSENGERS

Ryanair, the UK’s No. 1 passenger airline, today (11^th July) confirmed it has resigned from the UK Aviation Council, led by Baroness Vere, as this Council has proved over the last 6 months to be a “talking shop” which delivers no benefits, no reform and no change for UK aviation or UK passengers.

The UK Aviation Council held its first meeting in Feb 2023, the 2^nd meeting in April was postponed by Baroness Vere at short notice, and the 3^rd meeting took place today, 11^th July.

In Feb, Ryanair called on Baroness Vere to implement 5 practical measures to improve UK aviation at the 1^st Council meeting including;

• Improve NATS staffing to reduce ATC delays;
• The UK Govt to push for effective air space reform in Europe;
• Improve Border Control staffing and processing times;
• Called for reduced UK visa cost from £3,000 to £1,000 per person; and
• Restore temp IDs at UK airports to improve S23 staffing for airport, handling and PRM providers.

Baroness Vere and the UK Aviation Council has delivered no action whatsoever over the past 6 months on any of these achievable goals. At today’s meeting, Baroness Vere proposed a working group comprised of the DfT and CAA be set up to promote UK airspace “modernisation”. However, instead of delivering effective and efficient modernisation, this body won’t even report until April 2024, and the Dept of Transport has failed to provide any funding to deliver this reform. Ryanair regrettably concludes that this UK Aviation Council is a useless talking shop, which has failed to deliver any action or practical measures to improve UK aviation.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

“We joined the UK Aviation Council in Feb when Transport Minister Mark Harper assured us it would be used as a “delivery body” to improve the resilience of UK aviation. Sadly, this has proved to be an empty promise. There has been no action, no delivery, and no improvement in UK aviation, and the Council has become a talking shop for Baroness Vere, Govt bureaucrats and the CAA to waffle on about reform while delivering none.

Ryanair is the UK’s No. 1 passenger airline, and is investing heavily in new bases (Belfast) and new routes to/from the UK. We expect to grow our traffic in the UK in 2023 by 13% to 56m passengers and all of this growth is being delivered without any support or initiative from the UK Govt or its useless Aviation Council. We don’t have time to waste meeting with an ineffective industry Council, which doesn’t/hasn’t deliver any practical change or reform since its 1^st meeting last February.

If Baroness Vere wants to deliver change or improve UK aviation, then she should disband this useless Council and work instead with the UK’s major airlines to deliver real and effective change, which will enable us to improve capacity and lower air fares for UK citizens and visitors. Instead, Baroness Vere prefers to waste her time, and ours, holding a quarterly talking shop, at which she promises action, but delivers none. Ryanair has better things to do with our time than waste it on her useless and ineffective Aviation Council, and so we have written today to Baroness Vere to resign from this Council with immediate effect.”