Capacity ‘will go elsewhere’ if travel restrictions remain: Ryanair chief

The CE of Ryanair’s mainline operation has warned the Irish government that the carrier is able to place its aircraft elsewhere in Europe, as he lamented the country’s current restrictions on international travel. Noting that Ireland does not have a state-owned flag carrier, Eddie Wilson states on Ryanair’s new podcast that should the airline and IAG-owned Aer Lingus move aircraft to elsewhere in Europe amid those restrictions, “there is nobody else coming” to serve the Irish market. He also highlights a similar issue in the UK, where airlines have been calling for urgent government help to survive the pandemic. “It will just go somewhere else,” he says of airline connectivity if less-draconian measures are in place in other European countries. Wilson notes that this outcome could be exacerbated by a structural reduction in the number of aircraft in service as the industry emerges from the pandemic.<br/>