The airline bailouts have attracted sharp criticism from the bosses of Europe’s low-cost airlines such as Ryanair, the Continent’s largest carrier, and Budapest-based Wizz Air.
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has likened Lufthansa and other flag carriers to drunks at a wedding. “They’re just hoovering up state aid to give them unlimited firepower to distort the competition market once we’re all back flying again,” he said.
“BIG SURGE” IN BOOKINGS
Ryanair expects Britain to join other European countries in dropping coronavirus quarantine plans in the coming weeks, O’Leary added in an interview on Wednesday as he reported a “big surge” in holiday bookings from the country.
O’Leary said booking patterns in recent days made him “reasonably confident” that the low-cost giant’s planes would be 50 percent-60 percent full when it restarts 40 percent of its fleet in July.
“We have seen a big surge in bookings on our flights out of Ireland and the UK on flights to Spain, Portugal and Italy over the weekend, and that seems to be continuing this week,” he said.