Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary Attacks Rival Airlines Over Carbon Emissions

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary rekindled a war of words with the discount carrier’s full-service rivals, saying the single biggest step people can take to cut carbon emissions is to stop flying with BA, Lufthansa and their peers. “Everyone who switches to Ryanair from one of Europe’s legacy airlines, the old tax-exempt, polluting BA, Lufthansa, Air France, is reducing their environmental footprint by about 50% on intra-EU air travel,” O’Leary said at the Eurocontrol aviation sustainability summit in Brussels on Monday. O’Leary also lambasted the IATA, whose membership excludes most low-cost airlines, saying that the virtues of the fuel-efficient planes used by most discounters is “a message you won’t hear” from the trade group. “We know our position here is to sit behind IATA and be lectured.” IATA DG Willie Walsh, the former head of BA parent IAG SA, dismissed O’Leary’s comments, recalling in a retort laced with an expletive that the Ryanair CEO had once said airline industry leaders were prone to hyperbole. The dust-up marks a return to the heated exchanges that flared in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic grounded flights. Back then, Ryanair argued that the long-haul services and premiums cabins offered by the likes of Lufthansa were hugely inefficient compared with its own new, densely packed planes. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr hit back by saying bargain-basement fares were “economically, ecologically and politically irresponsible,” stoking demand for needless travel and making the industry an easy target for climate campaigners.<br/>