Ryanair Boeing 737-800 taking off from Cork Airport
Taken by Lauren Jordan @irelandspotter on Instagram
Ryanair have said that they want French Airports to reduce or remove all their taxes until October 2021. Ryanair have said that it will take 3 years to return to the load factor in 2019 and have requested the following: They want no landing tax or any fee per passenger transported until October 2021. They stated that from November to March 2022 that there should be no landing taxes and the passenger fees reduced by a half. From April to October 2022, the passenger fees will have halved and there will be no additional charge for new destinations that will have opened.
The airline has also had some trouble regarding the proposal for social distancing upon aircraft. Michael O’ Leary, Ryanair’s Chief Executive claims that the airline won’t fly again if they are forced to leave a middle seat open. Other airlines such as American Airlines and Delta Airlines have began using this option as an attempt to reduce the impact of Covid-19. Many other airlines are considering this process. However, it simply won’t work for Ryanair. In an interview with the Financial Times on April 22nd, Michael O’Leary stated how their business model requires high loads and refuses to fly if they are forced to carry less passengers. This has been reported by the Guardian.
Mr. O’ Leary expressed his opinion on the idea in this interview stating that: ‘We can’t make money of 66 percent load factors, Even if you do that, the middle seat doesn’t deliver any social distancing, so it’s kind of an idiotic idea that doesn’t achieve anything anyway.’
Other low cost carriers such as EasyJet have looked positively on this new seating process. The rival budget airliner has said that they plan to leave their middle seats empty when they return to flying. ‘Our assumption is that load factors will not be back to normal early on, which means that we will ahve the opportunity for a middle seat option, but I’m talking about this as an initial phase and nobody knows for how long that phase will be,’ according to CEO Johan Lundgren while in an interview with the Guardian.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) explained that the ’ U shaped’ recovery would mean that international demand wouldn’t recover to 80% of its demand before the pandemic began until 2024. Ryanair has different views on this statement though. O’Leary believes that once flights resume the passenger loads will rise much faster. He’s expecting that 40% of flights will resume in July (if they do go ahead) with loads of 50% to 60%. With other airline’s failing, he believes that he will exceed 2019 traffic growth in the summer of 2021, picking up passengers that would’ve taken airlines that will have disappeared.
However, the real question is is that will social distancing make a difference? IATA believes that it will. However, the IATA Director General de Juniac stated that this could mark the end of cheap flights as airlines might be forced to increase their prices. Another interesting discussion is the one from UK blog, Head for Points. They showed a study following the SARS outbreak in 2003. Some evidence shows that there is a greater transmission rate than expected which is up to seven rows away. However, other analysis shows that there is minimal problems on aircraft as many flights saw no transmissions at all. Most airlines believe that the safety of their passengers is their top priority during this time.
Others believe that social distancing on aircraft won‘t work at all. They say that there’s o scientific proof that this actually works. Even with the middle row free, someone could cough or sneeze behind you, making this method ineffective. Also, reducing their inventory by 33% will not only less income coming into the airline, but will also increase air travel significantly. Some say this method will only work if flight loads on the aircraft are low to begin with.
However, Michael O’ Leary isn’t completely against the idea of leaving the middle seat free. He says that if the Irish Government pay for the middle seats, he will go ahead with this method. Other ideas are getting passengers to wear face masks and taking their temperature beforehand.
The airline also hasn’t been refunding passengers or giving them a voucher once their flights are cancelled. For more information on this topic click here.
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