Many airlines around the world are facing substantial losses due to the coronavirus pandemic. Ryanair is no exception. Despite the low demand, the airline has found a way to keep everyone in employment. Even though Ryanair is in a better financial state than many other airlines in Europe, it is considering to sue to stop unnecessary bailouts to other airlines.
The largest airline in Europe, Ryanair, is handling the crisis quite well. The airline still has all 18,000 employes employed and is far from declaring bankruptcy. The airline has sufficient funds and is receiving aid from The UK, Ireland, Spain, and Italy. Even with this, many governments are only providing their inefficient flag carriers with billions of euros.
Ryanair's CEO Micheal O'Leary stated in an interview with SkyNews: "Airlines see this an opportunity, I think, to get one last huge quantity of state aid so they can go around and buy up everybody when this is all over." He wants EU countries to reconsider their aid programs, and he believes that airlines should be getting aid proportionate to their share of traffic in a particular country. Most flag carriers can get through this pandemic with minimal financial support. This is, in O'Leary's opinion, completely unfair, and he sees this selective distribution as damaging to non-flag carriers who are also facing similar issues.
To prevent an unequal start, O'Leary is convincing the French government to not only give aid to Air France- KLM, but not to forget about other big operating airlines such as Ryanair. Micheal is also convincing the European Commission to supervise countries to prevent unnecessary support. If these strategies do not happen, the CEO will sue to stop bailouts. This will lead to delays, which can have a severe impact on some unprofitable carriers.
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