Ryanair and its rivals will have to start looking at cancelling some flights if there is a risk to the supply of jet fuel in June, July or August, CEO Michael O’Leary said on Wednesday. O’Leary said the airline is not seeing much of a knock-on impact on its airfares from the Middle East conflict and that it still expects ticket prices to rise by 3 to 4% year-on-year from April to June, with traffic set to grow by about 5% over that period.
“We are confident that the war will end before then and that the supply risks will disappear,” the he told Sky News. He also pointed out that the Irish airline is ‘reasonably well covered’, as it has around 80% of its fuel purchased in advance until March 2027 at a price of $67 a barrel.
In O’Leary’s view, if the conflict ends and the Strait of Hormuz reopens “by mid-April, then there will be no risk” to the supply of aviation fuel. However, he also pointed out that if the war continues “and the supply disruption persists”, airlines believe that around 10, 20 or 25% of their supplies could be affected during May and June, he said.
O’Leary warned that the risk of “significantly higher” ticket prices remains for the months of May, April and June. Furthermore, the Ryanair boss claimed that some competitors in the low-cost sector, such as Wizz Air and easyJet, have already cancelled flights and plan to reduce their capacity by approximately 5% during May and June. For his part, O’Leary emphasised that Ryanair has not cancelled any flights and revealed that the airline intends to continue growing throughout this crisis.
Ryanair has also lashed out at Aena, the Spanish airport operator, following the news of its investment of over 482 million euros in the management of Galeão International Airport in Rio de Janeiro. The Irish airline questions the operator’s strategy, arguing that this international venture is being pursued to the detriment of air traffic growth at Spanish regional airports, many of which continue to lose routes and passengers.