UK airport chaos due to Brexit 'shambles': Ryanair boss

Air travel chaos in Britain is purely down to Brexit "shambles" by hobbling recruitment at airports, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday. The CEO of Europe's biggest airline also dismissed threats of summer strike action by what he called "Mickey Mouse" unions in Belgium and Spain covering some Ryanair workers. And he said his company has dropped a controversial pre-boarding questionnaire for South African passport holders requiring them to answer questions in Afrikaans - a language commonly used by just 12% of South Africans, many of them white. O'Leary told AFP that "100 per cent" of the woes experienced by air passengers in the UK - including massively long lines and cancelled flights - was because "Brexit has been a shambles". "It was delivered by a government led by Boris Johnson that is also a shambles. It was inevitable that Brexit would constrain the labour market, you see," he said. O'Leary said Britain's decision to pursue a hardline departure from the European Union that put a halt to EU workers filling jobs is largely why it was difficult to quickly ramp up recruitment for ground and security staff at UK passports. Airports and airlines in several countries, including in the EU and the US, have struggled to cope with surging numbers of travellers, many of them keen to fly after months or years of being grounded because of Covid restrictions.<br/>