Speaking to Sky News, he said that London Gatwick and London Heathrow would be the worst affected by the situation saying that thousands of flights would need to be cancelled. "I think this problem is going to continue, particularly at those airports like Gatwick and Heathrow, right throughout the summer. It will be worse at weekends, it will be better during the week."
O'Leary blustered that Ryanair was fully staffed and operating a full schedule so its not his fault there is disruption. Yet, crewing staff have a different opinion – “we’re running at 10% below [staff numbers] than what we need right now.”
Ryanair saw around 24% of its flights delayed over the weekend, due to air traffic control delays, a further 15% were affected by delays at the airport or with handling firms.
The multi-millionaire O’Leary said: the cause of the disruption was "one of the by-products of the struggle to recover smoothly from two years of COVID lockdown and government mismanagement".
It didn’t take the Irishman long before he started blaming Brexit, telling the TV channel “This problem will not be resolved until we start allowing European workers to come in and do the jobs that, frankly, UK people no longer wish to do."
"And Brexit is one of the big bug bears in the system - it has introduced enormous labour market inflexibility in the UK."
He also sneered at government comments that the aviation industry was one of the best-supported sectors during the covid pandemic. "That's the government's response to everything - this government couldn't run a sweet shop," he bemoaned, adding: “The problem here is not one of the airlines' making.”
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