Ryanair Chief Michael O’Leary Calls UK Covid Travel Response ‘Shambolic’

Ryanair Chief Michael O’Leary Calls UK Covid Travel Response ‘Shambolic’.

The boss of Europe’s largest budget airline has hit out at what he calls “Boris Johnson’s mismanagement of the Covid pandemic” and demanded that vaccinated travellers be able to fly between the UK and EU without any restrictions.

At present, the quarantine-free “ green list ” has only two feasible destinations for holidaymakers: Gibraltar and Iceland.

Ryanair’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said: “The UK’s Covid travel policy is a shambles. The green list is non-existent because countries such as Malta and Portugal, with lower Covid case numbers than the UK and rapidly rising vaccination rates, remain on amber.

“Meanwhile, UK citizens, almost 80 per cent of whom will be vaccinated by the end of June, continue to face Covid restrictions on travel to and from the European Union – despite the fact that the majority of EU citizens will also be vaccinated by the end of June.”

Mr O’Leary was speaking a day after calling for Air Passenger Duty to be suspended for several years to help the travel industry recover from the crisis.

The controversial boss of Ryanair called for a “pragmatic travel policy” which permits vaccinated UK and EU citizens to travel between the UK and the EU without the need for quarantine or negative PCR tests.

“This will at least allow the UK tourism industry to plan for what is left of the summer season and get hundreds of thousands of people back to work,” O’Leary added.

“It is time for Boris Johnson to end his gross mismanagement of Covid and the recovery from Covid, and take advantage of the UK’s successful vaccine programme to allow the restoration of free movement of vaccinated UK citizens and their families to and from the EU, where Covid case rates are lower than the UK and vaccination rates are rising rapidly”.

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