Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary believes the European market will return to 100pc of pre-pandemic capacity in 2024.
He says Europe’s air traffic control problems will ultimately be sorted out, but extra standby crews will be needed for “the next two or three years” to avoid ATC-related flight cancellations.
“For now short-haul capacity constraints are giving airlines pricing power. Capacity constraints and shortages of both new and used aircraft could continue out to 2030, but there’ll be another crisis between now and 2030. I just don’t know when or what it’ll be or where it will come from.”
Operational resilience is a challenge for European operators, but O’Leary is managing this through additional crews and by doubling operations control centre capacity in Dublin and Warsaw.
