Ryanair doubling capacity to 1.3m seats per week in Europe but not expanding in State

Ryanair is doubling capacity to 1.3m seats a week in Europe, but not expanding in the Republic, as further evidence of air travel’s recovery emerges. The airline said last month that Covid-19 travel restrictions left it with an E815m loss in the 12 months ended March 31st, but predicted that passenger numbers could hit nine million in July, 60% of pre-pandemic levels. Ryanair confirmed reports on Tuesday that it has increased the number of aircraft seats across its network to 1.3m a week, double what it was offering in the final seven days of May. “Ryanair traffic across Europe is recovering strongly in all markets except Ireland where the defective hotel quarantine is deterring millions of vaccinated British and EU visitors travelling here in June, July and August,” the group said. Ryanair CE Michael O’Leary called on the Government several times last month to end its controversial quarantine rules, which require travellers from the US and several EU states to remain in hotels at their own expense for two weeks. News of Ryanair’s increase came as Bank of America said that the number of seats available from European airlines this summer could reach 80% of 2019 levels. Bank of America’s sky tracker calculated that in the week ended May 23rd, net seat sales on flights within Europe increased a percentage point over the previous seven days, to 32% of what they were during the same period in 2019. “They are now at the highest level since March 2020,” the bank noted. It said that daily website visits in the week ending May 25th were just 45% down on 2019 levels.<br/>