00:00Now beyond France, people have also been taking to the streets of Spain, Portugal and Italy to
00:04protest over the cost of living crisis and rising fuel prices. Unions want lower prices,
00:09higher pensions and more money in their pockets. For the view from industry here,
00:13I'm joined now by Michael O'Leary, CEO of Europe's largest and most profitable airline
00:17group at Ryanair. Good morning, Michael O'Leary.
00:20Morning, Maeve. Great pleasure to be here.
00:21Lovely to have you. Look, when you see the wave of protests and industrial strikes all across
00:25Europe as the CEO of such a successful company, do you relate to these concerns?
00:30I do. I mean, you know, we live in Europe where, you know, we have fundamentally failed to be
00:36competitive. You know, the Draghi report is two years old. It is sat on the shelf gathering dust.
00:41Ursula von der Leyen talks about competitiveness and does absolutely nothing about it. You look
00:46at our sector in air transport, which has been one of the great successes of the European Union,
00:50the deregulation, liberalisation of air travel, brought about the growth of low fare airlines
00:54like Ryanair. You can now fly across the continent for 50 euros. It is one of the very few industries
00:59where we out-compete the Americans. They're ahead of us in AI. They're ahead of us in IT.
01:03When it comes to air travel, we're much cheaper in Europe than they are in the US.
01:07And yet, what are we doing? We're raising environmental taxes on air travel, which results
01:11in higher fares. You have that ship of fools in the European Parliament, redesigning more
01:16regulations designed to increase the cost of air travel when consumers want lower fares.
01:21We keep growing every year because consumers want what we deliver, which is really low fare,
01:25affordable air travel. And yet, our politicians and our regulators here in Europe add complexity,
01:31add regulation and add cost to consumers' lives.
01:34And these wave of protests, as you can see, consumers are feeling the pinch. They want more
01:38money in their pocket. Is this really just a taste of what is to come? Because as you say,
01:42we're not very competitive here in Europe. We're an ageing continent.
01:46Well, that doesn't mean we can't be more competitive. You have the AI bringing about
01:50huge, large growth in efficiency. We can be more competitive. I mean, I'm here in Brussels
01:56today. You know, unfortunately, I'm announcing Reiner's winter schedule. This winter, we're
02:00cutting a million seats out of Belgium. We're reducing our capacity in Zaventum and Charlebois.
02:06We're going to reduce by 20 routes this winter. Why? Because the De Weaver government has increased
02:11air travel from two euros per ticket to seven euros per ticket. And as the Belgians increase
02:16air taxes, taxes on air travel, the Slovakians, the Swedes, the Italians, the Hungarians have
02:22abolished air travel. We're moving aircraft to those countries who are competitive. Belgium is
02:27not competitive. France is not competitive. Germany is hopelessly uncompetitive. And yet the
02:32way forward is to reduce the tax burden on our citizens and do that by driving down the
02:37tax on air travel.
02:39Get more efficient. Stop raising taxes. Consumers around Europe, citizens of Europe want lower
02:44taxes, particularly on things like air travel, so they can travel affordably, meet friends
02:49and family across Europe. And we have a scandal in Europe. We tax, we apply environmental taxes
02:55only to intra-EU flights. We don't tax the Americans. We don't tax the Asians. We don't
03:00tax the Chinese. They can, despite the fact that their flights account for more than 53% of
03:04Europe's CO2 emissions, we exempt them. You know, nobody would design a stupid system like
03:09this other than the European Parliament and Ursula von der Leyen. If you're serious about
03:13competitiveness, tax the Americans when they land here in Europe. We should have a fair and
03:17reasonable environmental tax on all flights landing.
03:19But they're afraid to go there, right? They don't want to go there.
03:21Of course they're afraid to go there. Ursula von der Leyen's afraid to do anything except
03:24talk. You know, she's useless. We have, Europe has a roadmap for being more competitive.
03:30It's called the Draghi Report. Two years later, not one of its recommendations has been implemented.
03:35And Ursula von der Leyen hides in the Berlimont, doing nothing except giving speeches.
03:40If the Draghi Report was implemented, how could Europe look?
03:42We would be a dramatically more efficient society. I mean, if you look at air travel, they said,
03:48look, we should reduce the environmental tax burden on air travel, which is absolutely sensible.
03:53And we should reform ATC in Europe. ATC in Europe accounts for more than 90%
03:58of flight delays. And yet the airlines have to provide compensation and right-to-care expenses
04:03for passengers because of those delays. But we're not allowed to recover those costs
04:07from the people who cause over 90% of the delays, which is air traffic control.
04:11Why has there been no reform of air traffic control for 20 years in Europe?
04:14Because we have useless politicians like von der Leyen talking about being competitive,
04:19but doing nothing about it.
04:21And meanwhile, the reality for consumers, for those who like to catch a plane,
04:24airfares are going up and they'll keep going up.
04:26Well, I mean, they won't necessarily keep, they're going to go significantly up in the
04:30next 12 months for two reasons. One, because of the higher cost of fuel. We're hedged in
04:34Reiner this year at about $67 a barrel. Next year, our oil price will double. And the second
04:39reason airfares are going up is because of increases in ETS, environmental taxation, on only
04:44intra-European flights while we exempt all the American flights, the Asian flights.
04:48That's a reality you can't just ignore either.
04:50Of course, it's not a reality. The reality is if you want to fly to Europe, if you want to
04:54land
04:54and take off in Europe, the Americans, the Asians, the Chinese should pay their fair
04:58share. We shouldn't be exempting them who create the greatest amount of emissions while
05:02we only tax the poor, dumb European citizens travelling around visiting friends and family.
05:07And are you planning a surcharge for the fuel?
05:09No, no. We will. Down Reiner, we guarantee no fuel surcharges. But there is no doubt that
05:13airfares are going to rise significantly in 2027 because of much higher oil prices.
05:18OK. Michael O'Leary, CEO of Reiner. Thank you so much.
05:20Thank you, mate. Great to be here.
05:21On your own news.
