Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has stepped up a war of words with Transport Minister Eamon Ryan, in a spat that involves the passenger cap over Dublin Airport that the Daa – the State’s airports operator – says it wants to see lifted.
The Daa, which also operates Cork airport, wants Fingal County Council to lift a cap that restricts the number of passengers at Dubin airport to an annual 32m people on the grounds that Dublin is the key airport to continue to deliver economic prosperity across the island.
Mr Ryan has recently rejected claims by the Ryanair boss that he has failed to give his full attention over a number of years to Dublin Airport and said he cannot intervene in a planning process at Fingal, the local council that is responsible for planning decisions at Dublin airport.
The minister has also pointedly complained about the “personalised, inaccurate, and inflammatory” communications from the Ryanair chief executive.
However, in a new letter on Wednesday, Mr O’Leary has escalated the spat, claiming that the two Green Party ministers for transport and tourism have failed to intervene with Fingal and that “you both appear incapable of, or unwilling to take any action to scrap this absurd traffic cap, which is now diverting Ireland’s traffic, tourism and jobs growth away from Dublin to other UK and EU competitor airports”.
It is not the first that the Ryanair chief has clashed with an Irish Government minister. Mary O’Rourke, Seamus Brennan, as well as officials had been the subject of his verbal broadsides.
In 2004, Mr O’Leary took out full page newspaper ads attacking former taoiseach Bertie Ahern over his alleged failure to break up the then State airport company, Aer Rianta.
Mr Ahern at the time said that if Mr O’Leary was still at school he could be described as a bully. Mr O’Leary in turn responded that Mr Ahern was being bullied by trade unions at Dublin Airport.
Dublin airport remains key for Ryanair to drive passenger growth in the coming years, despite the airline looking to Italy and Poland to generate expansion for the huge number of planes it plans to get from Boeing over the coming years.
The airline said earlier this week it may be forced to pare back its summer season somewhat following delays to the delivery of Boeing planes.
The airline may receive fewer than 40 Boeing 737 Max jets before the end of June, Mr O’Leary said.
Any such shortfall would force Ryanair to cut its annual passenger forecast across the group to 200m people from 205m for the coming financial year, he said.
