Ryanair drops three French airports in row over tax
In a characteristically combative interview with Le Parisien newspaper, Michael O'Leary said France preferred tax rises to economic growth. His comments prompted an angry response from Philippe Tabarot, the French transport minister.
O'Leary said that Ryanair, Europe's largest airline with 200 million passengers last year, would cease services to three airports in France this winter and would reduce French flights by 13 per cent.
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Ryanair is to stop flights to and from Bergerac and Brive airports, which serve the Dordogne, a popular holiday destination and home to many British expatriates. Flights to Strasbourg, in eastern France, will also cease.
He said France's decision to increase its 'solidarity tax' on air fares, from €2.63 per ticket to €7.40, would make services to these airports unprofitable.
'This is a rise of 180 per cent and it's completely unjustified,' O'Leary said. 'You know what the French government has succeeded in doing in recent years? Shooting itself in both feet with these ridiculous and idiotic taxes on air travel.
'It isn't surprising that France is one of the countries that has recovered least well from Covid. France prefers taxes to growth.'
O'Leary said Ryanair had proposed a five-year plan to the government to double the number of its passengers from 15 million to 30 million on French routes, on condition that France scrapped aviation taxes. 'We have less costly alternatives elsewhere, in other countries that realise the stupidity of French taxes.'
He said six regions in Italy had cut or scrapped air travel taxes, which previously amounted to €6.50 on each ticket. 'We will simply move our planes to countries with lower costs. And if France responds to that by increasing taxes still further, we will reduce our services even more.'
He also attacked French air traffic controllers over what he described as 'recreational' strikes, after Ryanair said it cancelled 170 flights.
Tabarot rejected Ryanair's arguments as an 'excuse' and 'a strategy to exonerate it from its social and fiscal obligations'.
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He accused Ryanair of excessive cost-cutting but added: 'I haven't got a problem with an airline making a profit, which is the case for Ryanair, which has doubled its profits in a year.'
Other airlines have also criticised France's taxes on air travel. Benjamin Smith, the chief executive of Air France-KLM, has described them as 'irresponsible'.
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Reuters
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Insight: The airline industry's dirty secret: Clean jet fuel failures
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an hour ago
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Reuters
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