Eight key takeaways from Michael O’Leary’s Ryanair press conference in Brussels on 20 October 2026
- Belgium’s planned rise in aviation tax from €2 to €7 in 2027 (a 250pc increase) will cause Ryanair to cut 1.1 million seats this winter. Six aircraft are being moved from Charleroi to Italy, Sweden and Slovakia, 20 routes will close and about 200 pilot and cabin crew jobs will leave Belgium.
- Ryanair expects to carry 214 million passengers this year, up 43pc since Covid, making it the world’s second-largest airline and Europe’s biggest by a wide margin. It is twice the size of Lufthansa, IAG, Air France-KLM and easyJet combined.
- Countries that abolish aviation taxes (Sweden, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Albania) are gaining Ryanair capacity and rapid growth, while high-tax nations such as Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands continue to lose traffic.
- O’Leary strongly criticised the De Wever government and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, saying the Draghi competitiveness report has been ignored for two years and that raising taxes on mobile aviation assets is a failed policy.
- Ryanair has submitted a seven-year growth plan that would raise Belgian traffic from about 10-11 million to 16 million passengers, add 17 new aircraft and create 1,000 extra jobs if Belgium abolishes the aviation tax, lowers Zaventem charges and eases the curfew.
- Airfares across Europe are forecast to rise by 10-20pc in 2027, the biggest increase in history, driven by unhedged high fuel costs, tighter capacity from industry consolidation and further rises in European ETS environmental taxes that exempt long-haul carriers from outside the EU.
- Ryanair expects the Boeing 737 Max 10 to be certified by the FAA in October 2026, with first delivery in January 2027. The aircraft offers 20pc more seats and 20pc lower fuel burn per seat and will support growth to around 220 million passengers next year, none of it in Belgium under current tax plans.
- O’Leary predicted further European airline consolidation towards four large groups (Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, IAG and Ryanair). He welcomed Lufthansa’s acquisition of TAP, saying higher fares at TAP would help Ryanair grow faster in Portugal, as happened after Lufthansa took over ITA in Italy.
