Ryanair tells Burnham: Slash taxes or we’ll cut UK flights
The boss of Ryanair has warned Andy Burnham that the budget airline will cut its flight capacity in the UK if the government refuses to drop plans for a “double tax” on tourists.
Michael O’Leary, chief executive of the Dublin-based carrier, has accused the government of planning to tax tourists twice, with mayors set to gain powers to impose a levy on overnight accommodation.
Air passengers are already subject to a “visitor tax” in the shape of Air Passenger Duty (APD), which was hiked from £13 to £15 for short-haul economy flights in April. Ryanair is calling for the government to abolish APD.
O’Leary told reporters on Wednesday: “You can’t tax tourists on the way into the UK and then double tax them for the hotel night.
“But that is the Labour plan, which is always a plan with Labour: more tax and even more public spending and less economic growth.”
The boss of Ryanair, which is the world’s second-largest airline by passenger numbers, said the carrier is “actively switching capacity away” from countries which are raising taxes.
“We are still growing in the UK this year, but if the government doubles visitor taxes with a visitor levy, I suspect we will be taking capacity out of the UK for the summer of 2026,” O’Leary added.
“We don’t want to do that. We want to continue to grow in the UK. All we need is part of the government to abolish APD, go ahead with your visitor tax, at least get your visitors in[to] the UK before you tax them.
“Sweden, Slovakia, Hungary, Albania, and Italy have all scrapped access taxes and are growing rapidly, while the UK isn’t. We call on Burnham to scrap APD, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
Burnham has ‘flimsy grip on history’
If the government commits to scrapping APD, Ryanair claims it will introduce 30 new aircraft to UK airports, create 200 new routes and hire 10,000 new workers.
O’Leary also hit out at comments made by the new Prime Minister, who has blamed the ills facing the country on “40 years of neoliberalism”.
The Ryanair boss said: “Andy Burnham, whose grasp of history is somewhat flimsy, believes that the last 40 years have been a tragic mistake.
“He clearly doesn’t remember or wasn’t around for the 70s and 80s when the UK economy was the sick man of Europe and the IMF [International Monetary Fund] were running the economy. He thinks going back to the 60s and 70s is the way forward to deliver ‘growth in every postcode’. He is sadly mistaken.”
O’Leary said the government can deliver growth across the UK by backing its tourism industry which he said “can be turned on or turned off instantaneously” by cutting tax.
The Ryanair boss also reiterated his calls for the sacking of Martin Rolfe, the beleaguered chief executive of National Air Services (NATs), the UK’s air traffic control authority.
The budget airline has blamed Rolfe for the two technical outages which caused Nats to ground thousands of flights earlier this month.
The Department for Transport declined to comment on whether it will dismiss Rolfe. Transport secretary Heidi Alexander is set to meet with Sir Warren East, the chair of Nats and former Rolls-Royce boss, to discuss Rolfe’s future, City AM understands.
O’Leary, who has faced scrutiny over the €150m stock option in his contract, claimed that Rolfe is “overpaid and underworked” because the Nats boss has collected £2m in bonuses in the last few years.
A spokesperson for Nats said: “The system is stable and we have been running at full capacity since lunchtime Monday. We have been focused on working with our customers to recover their residual delays and help get their operations back to normal. We are extremely sorry for the disruption this caused for everyone who has been affected.”