Ryanair, led by Michael O’Leary, Chief Executive Officer, has announced today that it has resigned from the UK Aviation Council citing inaction on its calls made in February this year.
The press release read ,
Ryanair, the UK’s No. 1 passenger airline, today (11th July) confirmed it has resigned from the UK Aviation Council, led by Baroness Vere, as this Council has proved over the last 6 months to be a “talking shop” which delivers no benefits, no reform and no change for UK aviation or UK passengers.
Citing three meetings including the one as recent as Today's , the European Carrier raised the points that should have been considered for some definitive results.
The UK Aviation Council held its first meeting in Feb 2023, the 2nd meeting in April was postponed by Baroness Vere at short notice, and the 3rd meeting took place today, 11th July.
As per the Press release , earlier in Feb, Ryanair called on Baroness Vere to implement 5 practical measures to improve UK aviation at the 1st Council meeting including;
Ryanair has accused the Council of "Inaction" , and has failed to deliver on the discussed agendas , hence has reduced itself to a mere "talking shop" , Its says ,
Baroness Vere and the UK Aviation Council has delivered no action whatsoever over the past 6 months on any of these achievable goals. At today’s meeting, Baroness Vere proposed a working group comprised of the DfT and CAA be set up to promote UK airspace “modernisation”.
However, instead of delivering effective and efficient modernisation, this body won’t even report until April 2024, and the Dept of Transport has failed to provide any funding to deliver this reform.
Ryanair regrettably concludes that this UK Aviation Council is a useless talking shop, which has failed to deliver any action or practical measures to improve UK aviation.
On the Departure from the Council , Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:
“We joined the UK Aviation Council in Feb when Transport Minister Mark Harper assured us it would be used as a “delivery body” to improve the resilience of UK aviation. Sadly, this has proved to be an empty promise. There has been no action, no delivery, and no improvement in UK aviation, and the Council has become a talking shop for Baroness Vere, Govt bureaucrats and the CAA to waffle on about reform while delivering none.
Ryanair is the UK’s No. 1 passenger airline, and is investing heavily in new bases (Belfast) and new routes to/from the UK. We expect to grow our traffic in the UK in 2023 by 13% to 56m passengers and all of this growth is being delivered without any support or initiative from the UK Govt or its useless Aviation Council. We don’t have time to waste meeting with an ineffective industry Council, which doesn’t/hasn’t deliver any practical change or reform since its 1st meeting last February.
If Baroness Vere wants to deliver change or improve UK aviation, then she should disband this useless Council and work instead with the UK’s major airlines to deliver real and effective change, which will enable us to improve capacity and lower air fares for UK citizens and visitors. Instead, Baroness Vere prefers to waste her time, and ours, holding a quarterly talking shop, at which she promises action, but delivers none. Ryanair has better things to do with our time than waste it on her useless and ineffective Aviation Council, and so we have written today to Baroness Vere to resign from this Council with immediate effect.”
The UK Aviation Council brings together industry and government to support the delivery and implementation of commitments set out in the Flightpath to the Future and to ensure that the UK retains one of the strongest and most successful aviation sectors in the world.
On May 30 , the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) , whose CEO , Richard Moriarty, is also a member of the council had said ,
At the Aviation Council last week, our Joint-Interim Chief Executive Paul Smith discussed how to ensure the UK’s Airspace Modernisation Strategy takes off. Prioritising modernising our airspace to help reduce emissions and fuel costs ensures our airspace is fit for the future.
