Eddie Wilson (Ryanair): "We will pressure Europe to guarantee competition with IAG"

Ryanair, the first airline in Europe by passengers, raises the pressure on its competitors in a summer season that is expected to be crucial for the financial recovery of airlines after the hole suffered during the pandemic. The Irish low cost has broken passenger records in the last year, has gained market share in key countries such as Italy and Spain and expects a notable return to profit. Now it is preparing a strong increase in capacity, with a special focus on Spain. Eddie Wilson, CEO of Ryanair DAC, the main subsidiary of the Ryanair group, explains in a telematic interview that the company can still increase its dominance of the country’s air market.

Ryanair has just signed the first collective agreement with the pilots and they are negotiating another with the cabin crew. They have been flying in Spain for 21 years, why has it taken so long to have a collective agreement with the workers?

There really isn’t a delay on that. There is a different way to make agreements in Spain, we had the interruption of the pandemic and then we had to make an emergency agreement that was relatively quick. We already had many of these agreements in place, but now for the first time we have signed a full collective agreement. As for the cabin crew, we should be able to conclude a similar agreement on schedule and we have already reached agreements with CC.OO.

They have announced a 10% increase in capacity for this summer season in Spain [in 2022 they transported almost 52 million passengers in the country, their record, and increased market share compared to 2019, with 21.2%]. Do you consider it viable to grow more in Spain, gain more market share, or are you reaching your limit?

This summer we are going to increase capacity by more than 10%, we are going to make some 1,000 daily flights to and from Spain and we will have fourteen additional aircraft based in Spain, and we are incorporating two new bases, in Tenerife and Lanzarote. Our growth is distributed fairly evenly across the country. That being said, I think we can easily continue to grow, particularly at regional airports. There are large population centers and we still have the cheapest fares, so at the moment passengers gravitate towards us. On the other hand, I think we can gain more market share in Spain because there is continuous consolidation in the European markets. Many other airlines have become smaller and are not willing to fill those gaps in the market, while we are bigger than before covid and still have 120 planes to arrive that we can assign to one of our 90 existing bases or open new.

The group’s fiscal year ends on March 31. Do they maintain the announced profit forecasts? How is the demand to fly in summer?

The guidance that we gave of profits between 1,325 and 1,425 million euros is maintained. We’re impressed with what we’ve seen so far in terms of demand, but it’s too early to tell how the summer will go.

Could the merger of Iberia and Air Europa be beneficial for Ryanair? Will they take the opportunity to occupy any of the routes that remain free?

I think there will be opportunities because they will clearly have to give up slots [flight rights] in Madrid and hopefully also in the Balearic and Canary Islands. The Spaniards paid 500 million to turn around an airline that then quickly lost another 500 million [refers to SEPI’s rescue of Air Europa for 475 million euros and the losses of 304.3 million suffered by the airline in 2021 and of 427.7 million in 2020]. Then they were bought for another 500 million. So it seems that the figure is always 500 million euros, as long as it is not his money. In other words, if the Spanish taxpayer had not been asked for the money, Air Europa would have gone bankrupt and there would have been nothing wrong with that because we would have Ryanair, Iberia, easyJet or any other that had entered the market to take advantage of that opportunity. I always worry when airline executives talk about a strategic alliance or whatever, it’s usually code to raise fares and reduce competition. We will therefore lobby the European Commission hard to ensure that enough slots and solutions are offered to those who can compete with IAG now that it has acquired Air Europa. So there will be opportunities for us, but we have to make sure we get those slots.

With inflation and the new environmental taxes on aviation, will flying generally be more expensive from now on?

There are inflationary pressures, but it seems that people still want to travel despite it. The demand seems to resist. Fares will probably go up a bit because in the industry there are fewer seats, less capacity. And when there is less of anything, the price rises, to which must be added the increase in the price of oil. Prices will tend to rise, but within Ryanair it will be a very moderate increase and we will continue to have the cheapest fares.