Ryanair’s capacity could double because of vaccine boost

Ryanair’s capacity could double its passenger capacity for the rest of the summer because of the boost vaccines are creating for international travel, CEO Michael O’Leary said.

Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary said the lox-cost carrier passenger capacity could double in the next few weeks because the EU is re-opening to travel.

Speaking to Bloomberg Television on July 1, O’Leary said the airline hopes to carry nine million passengers in July and August compared with five million in June and 1.7 million passengers in May.

“We’re seeing a very strong recovery in bookings, German leisure, Benelux leisure, Scandinavian leisure, heading to the beaches of Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy. We expect that to continue into July and August, which should make for a reasonable recovery,” Ryanair’s chief said.

However, he admitted that only 50 per cent of available seats have been booked for July and 30 per cent for August, compared with up to 70 per cent pre-pandemic.

O’Leary also criticised the British government for an overly cautious green list and the Irish government for failing to roll out the EU’s digital Covid certificate on time.

He also called on Brussels to integrate Britain’s NHS Covid certification app within the EU system.

This week Malta, which was added to the UK’s green list for quarantine free travel last month, said it would only accept printed confirmation from the NHS about vaccine status and not information contained within the app.

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