Ryanair CEO O’Leary lambasts Italian fare cap as illegal, weighs route culls
Ryanair Holdings chief executive officer Michael O’Leary blasted Italy’s new cap on airfares as “illegal” and impossible to comprehend, threatening to scale back some of the discount carrier’s flights on popular domestic routes if the government holds onto the measure.
“The price decree is illegal and completely unenforceable,” Mr O’Leary said in an interview. The government failed “to explain how it works”, he said, following a meeting with Italian officials.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has slammed Italy’s cap on airfares. MARTIN MEISSNER
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet last month approved a decree to reduce the impact of rising airfares after a wave of sharp price hikes during the summer, particularly on routes to Sardinia and Sicily.
Mr O’Leary said his airline would consider thinning out its service to the islands if the government holds onto the price cap, and instead offer more international flights to the two destinations, though he noted that Italy remains a key hub for the carrier.
Ryanair has already filed a complaint related to the decree with the European Union.
The airline initiative – one of several recent moves from Italy’s right-wing government signalling a more hands-on approach in the corporate area – was designed to clamp down on carriers’ use of algorithms to set ticket prices.
The decree comes in the wake of a rapid consolidation of the Italian aviation market since the collapse of state-owned Alitalia and a pullback by other carriers during the pandemic.
Ryanair and Alitalia’s successor, ITA Airways, together make up 53 per cent of the airline market in Italy this year, based on revenue from scheduled flights tracked by consumer group Euromonitor, with the Irish discounter rapidly gaining
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