Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary
(Picture: PA)Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has warned that airline passengers face years of flight chaos and rising ticket prices.
Ticket prices have risen across Europe and the US as passengers returned after coronavirus lockdowns and some airlines slashed capacity because of staff shortages.
O’Leary said he expected a combination of high oil prices and environmental charges to push the average Ryanair fare up from €40 (£34) to between €50 to €60 over the medium term.
He told the Financial Times: “It’s got too cheap for what it is. I find it absurd every time that I fly to Stansted, the train journey into central London is more expensive than the air fare.”
The airline chief also criticised the UK government and what he branded“the disaster” of Brexit, which had stopped airlines easily recruiting European workers.
He added: “This is without doubt one of the inevitable consequences of the disaster that has been Brexit. Withdrawing from the single market, just so that they can say: ‘We got Brexit done’ was the height of idiocy. But then they are idiots.”
Passengers at Heathrow have been hit with cancelled flights, huge queues and lost baggage and a new schedule with fewer flights per day has been set up to try to limit future chaos.
The Ryanair boss still believes fares will rise, as he expects oil prices to remain “structurally higher” for the next four or five years, “until we can wean ourselves off Russian oil and gas”.
He added that he expects wider inflationary pressures will continue to heap pressure on the airline industry including staff costs and air traffic control charges, also highlighting rising environmental charges.
Ryanair has been one of the few European airlines to avoid serious disruption in recent months.
EasyJet last month disclosed it had rejected 8,000 job applicants because of their nationality this year with the majority applying from the EU.
