Some Ryanair tickets will be free within a decade, CEO says

The head of Irish discount airline Ryanair says he expects some seats on the company's flights will soon be free as airports and carriers share revenue from concessions sold in flight and on the ground. Michael O'Leary said Tuesday that by 2026, he expects his airline to sell some tickets on its flights with a $0 base fare. "I have this vision that in the next five to 10 years that the air fares on Ryanair will be free," The Guardian quoted him as saying, "in which case the flights will be full, and we will be making our money out of sharing the airport revenues — of all the people who will be running through airports, and getting a share of the shopping and the retail revenues at airports." Although it sounds farfetched, O'Leary was quoted by the Guardian and other British press as saying that the ground work has already been laid in the form of some of the deals his company has been pitched from smaller regional airports to start offering flights there in exchange for drastically reduced landing fees. "I think it will happen," he said, "it ... won't happen at Heathrow or those big hub airports but most of the other airports who are looking for big traffic growth, that process is already starting to happen, lowering airport fees and some of the charges."<br/>