Ryanair threatens to leave Ireland unless government lifts travel restrictions

Ryanair has threatened to leave Ireland if Covid-19 travel restrictions remain in place. The budget Irish carrier has warned it will move operations out of Ireland during the winter season unless the government does away with its “green list”. The list is comprised of countries that are deemed safe to travel to and which do not require travellers to quarantine upon arrival. Eddie Wilson, Ryanair’s CEO, appealed to the Irish government to act on the final report of the Taskforce for Aviation Recovery published in August by “the best brains in the aviation industry”. “We haven’t heard anything. And now we’re going into the winter and we’re going to have to move that capacity out of Ireland. You can’t do business with a 14-day quarantine,” he said. Ryanair claims Ireland and its public health team have become “the laughing stock of Europe” due to the cautious approach it has taken in relation to overseas visitors. The company has requested that the UK, the US and Germany also be added to the green list, as a bare minimum. In July, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he would be taking a “cautious approach” when it came to foreign travel, but Ryanair has said that the green list has had a “severe, detrimental effect” on the Irish tourism industry. The carrier has called on the Irish government to offer incentives in the form of cuts to airport charges in all Irish airports over the next three years.<br/>