TRAVEL NEWS
News and Informations for the Travel Manager
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Travel News
| Ryanair chief admits his airline is not really Irish |
13.03.2006 |
| Europe's biggest low-cost airline, Ryanair, has admitted that it is in effect based in Britain, prompting senior regulatory figures to call for it to be brought under the wing of British safety authorities.
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The carrier's biggest operational base by far is London's Stansted airport, from where it flies to 88 destinations, compared with 52 from its original hub of Dublin. Yet it is registered in Ireland and regulated by the Irish Aviation Authority, a much smaller body than Britain's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Ryanair's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, appeared to acknowledge the discrepancy in a speech to the annual dinner of the Airport Operators' Association last week. He discussed Britain's history of fostering airline competition, which he said had spawned an entrepreneurial culture: "There is a reason why easyJet and Ryanair are effectively based in the UK."
European commission rules state: "No airline can be granted an operating licence by a member state unless its principal base of business and, if any, its registered office are located in that member state."
According to airport operator BAA, Ryanair carried 62% of the 22 million passengers who passed through Stansted in the year to February. Ryanair also has major hubs in Liverpool, Luton and Glasgow. Opinions are divided about whether it can continue to argue that its principal place of business is Ireland.
A top safety regulator at the CAA told the Guardian: "The time is rapidly approaching when we need to look at what is meant by 'substantially established' in the UK in a legal sense."
Regulation in the UK would allow the CAA to oversee Ryanair's crew training, maintenance, aircraft design and the robustness of its finances. It would give the CAA the power to investigate allegations of the kind raised by undercover reporters in a recent Channel Four Dispatches documentary which questioned the quality of Ryanair's training and the competence of security checks at departure gates.
The issue of budget airlines blurring their nationality has come up in "open skies" talks aimed at liberalising aviation between Europe and the US. But Ryanair's contribution to the Irish economy is likely to prompt the Irish government to oppose any attempt to shift the airline's regulation elsewhere.
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