Ryanair boss calls lockdown a ‘cover-up for Boris Johnson’s political mismanagement’ amid £178m loss

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Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary claims new lockdown is a ‘cover-up for Boris Johnson’s political mismanagement’ – as airline suffers £178m loss in first half of 2020 and predicts WORSE to follow

  • Ryanair announced losses of £178million from the coronavirus pandemic
  • Ireland-based low cost airline said it ‘expects record higher losses’ to come
  • CEO Michael O’ Leary said lockdown was a political mismanagement ‘cover-up’

By Dan Sales For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

Ryanair has announced losses of £178million from the coronavirus pandemic as its CEO insisted testing could have avoided new restrictions, branding Boris Johnson’s second lockdown ‘a cover-up for political mismanagement’.

Michael O’Leary savaged the government over the impending national shutdown as his Ireland-based low cost airline said it ‘expects record higher losses’ in the second half of the year.

The firm’s huge losses are particularly striking as the company has a lower cost base and a stronger balance sheet.

Mr O’Leary said: ‘National lockdown hasn’t defeated Covid, that’s the whole point, the lockdown at the start of the year achieved nothing, the second lockdown will achieve even less – it’s just a cover-up for political mismanagement, which the Johnson government continues to deliver.

Michael O’Leary called Boris ‘s new lockdown ‘a cover-up for political mismanagement’

‘What we need is much more extensive test and tracing, the UK should setting a target of not just 500,000 people a week, it should be 5 million a week, you need much more extensive testing.

‘Air travel, certainly on shorthold within the European Union can continue and has if you have passengers having a test within 72 hours of departure – that would give us assurances we’re not spreading the virus in Europe.

‘European governments have failed to put that in place during the first lockdown, which is why we have this second lockdown and we need to use this second lockdown to massively scale up testing because testing is the way out of or living with this virus without having these utterly failed and deeply damaging lockdowns.’

The CEO was speaking to Radio 4 as he admitted stripping out the flight schedule for most of November and the early part of December

He said there was a skeleton selection of services between UK airports and Europe, kept on for essential work travel.

But he said it meant if flights were still operating they could not get refunds, despite the lockdown banning travel.

Ryanair said it had lost £178million so far this year and expected more to come in later months

Ryanair said it had lost £178million so far this year and expected more to come in later months

Airports like Heathrow, pictured, are empty after the coronavirus restrictions hit hard

Airports like Heathrow, pictured, are empty after the coronavirus restrictions hit hard

Mr O’Leary added: ‘What customers can take advantage of is our change facility, we’ve waived the change fee, so if they were booking in November they can change it, move to December or January if needs be, but there won’t be refunds on flights that are operating and travelling.’

Coronavirus saw 99% of the carrier’s fleet grounded for almost four months between mid-March and the end of June.

The company said traffic in the first half of the year fell from 86 million to 17 million passengers compared with the same period last year, around 80%.

Its revenue dropped 78% to 1.18 billion euros (£1.06 billion), while the loss in this half year contrasts with a profit after tax of 1.15 billion euros (£1.04 billion) in the first half of last financial year.

Data on flights analysed by Flightradar24 showed the difference in flights from last year

Data on flights analysed by Flightradar24 showed the difference in flights from last year

With almost no traffic in the first quarter of the year, the ‘vast majority’ of the first half of the year’s revenue was earned in the second quarter, the firm said.

It added: ‘Given the current Covid-19 uncertainty, Ryanair cannot provide FY21 PAT (profit after tax) guidance at this time.

‘The group expects to carry approximately 38 million passengers in FY21, although this guidance could be further revised downwards if EU Govts continue to mismanage air travel and impose more uncoordinated travel restrictions or lock downs this winter.’

It said the pandemic, uncertainties over Brexit, airline pricing, fuel costs, competition from new and existing carriers, actions by governments and the willingness of passengers to travel ‘could significantly impact’ its results for the remainder of the year.

It was critical of what it called a ‘flood of illegal state aid from EU governments’ to carriers including Air France and Lufthansa, which it said would ‘distort competition and allow failed flag carriers to engage in below-cost selling for many years’.  

How more than 210,000 job losses have been revealed by major UK firms since lockdown began 

Some 212,081 job losses have been announced by major British employers since the start of the coronavirus lockdown in March as follows:

  • October 29 – Pizza Express – 1,300 
  • October 7 – Greene King – 800 
  • October 6 – Virgin Money – 400 
  • October 6 – Vp – 150 
  • October 5 – Cineworld – 5,500 (many cuts likely to be temporary) 
  • September 30 – TSB – 900 
  • September 30 – Shell – 9,000 worldwide 
  • September 29 – Ferguson – 1,200
  • September 22 – Wetherspoon – 400 to 450
  • September 22 – Whitbread – 6,000
  • September 18 – Investec – 210
  • September 15 – Waitrose – 124
  • September 14 – London City Airport – 239
  • September 9 – Lloyds Bank – 865
  • September 9 – Pizza Hut – 450
  • September 4 – Virgin Atlantic – 1,150
  • September 3 – Costa – 1,650
  • August 27 – Pret a Manger – 2,800 (includes 1,000 announced on July 6)
  • August 26 – Gatwick Airport – 600
  • August 25 – Co-operative Bank – 350
  • August 20 – Alexander Dennis – 650
  • August 18 – Bombardier – 95
  • August 18 – Marks & Spencer – 7,000
  • August 14 – Yo! Sushi – 250
  • August 14 – River Island – 350
  • August 12 – NatWest – 550
  • August 11 – InterContinental Hotels – 650 worldwide
  • August 11 – Debenhams – 2,500
  • August 7 – Evening Standard – 115
  • August 6 – Travelex – 1,300
  • August 6 – Wetherspoons – 110 to 130
  • August 5 – M&Co – 380
  • August 5 – Arsenal FC – 55
  • August 5 – WH Smith – 1,500
  • August 4 – Dixons Carphone – 800
  • August 4 – Pizza Express – 1,100 at risk
  • August 3 – Hays Travel – up to 878
  • August 3 – DW Sports – 1,700 at risk
  • July 31 – Byron – 651
  • July 30 – Pendragon – 1,800
  • July 29 – Waterstones – unknown number of head office roles
  • July 28 – Selfridges – 450
  • July 27 – Oak Furnitureland – 163 at risk
  • July 23 – Dyson – 600 in UK, 300 overseas
  • July 22 – Mears – fewer than 200
  • July 20 – Marks & Spencer – 950 at risk
  • July 17 – Azzurri Group (owns Zizzi and Ask Italian) – up to 1,200
  • July 16 – Genting – 1,642 at risk
  • July 16 – Burberry – 150 in UK, 350 overseas
  • July 15 – Banks Mining – 250 at risk
  • July 15 – Buzz Bingo – 573 at risk
  • July 14 – Vertu – 345 July 14 – DFS – up to 200 at risk
  • July 9 – General Electric – 369
  • July 9 – Eurostar – unknown number
  • July 9 – Boots – 4,000
  • July 9 – John Lewis – 1,300 at risk
  • July 9 – Burger King – 1,600 at risk
  • July 7 – Reach (owns Daily Mirror and Daily Express newspapers) – 550
  • July 6 – Pret a Manger – 1,000 at risk
  • July 2 – Casual Dining Group (owns Bella Italia and Cafe Rouge) – 1,909
  • July 1 – SSP (owns Upper Crust) – 5,000 at risk
  • July 1 – Arcadia (owns TopShop) – 500
  • July 1 – Harrods – 700
  • July 1 – Virgin Money – 300
  • June 30 – Airbus – 1,700
  • June 30 – TM Lewin – 600
  • June 30 – Smiths Group – ‘some job losses’
  • June 25 – Royal Mail – 2,000
  • June 24 – Jet2 – 102
  • June 24 – Swissport – 4,556
  • June 24 – Crest Nicholson – 130
  • June 23 – Shoe Zone – unknown number of jobs in head office
  • June 19 – Aer Lingus – 500
  • June 17 – HSBC – unknown number of jobs in UK, 35,000 worldwide
  • June 15 – Jaguar Land Rover – 1,100
  • June 15 – Travis Perkins – 2,500
  • June 12 – Le Pain Quotidien – 200
  • June 11 – Heathrow – at least 500
  • June 11 – Bombardier – 600
  • June 11 – Johnson Matthey – 2,500
  • June 11 – Centrica – 5,000
  • June 10 – Quiz – 93
  • June 10 – The Restaurant Group (owns Frankie and Benny’s) – 3,000
  • June 10 – Monsoon Accessorise – 545
  • June 10 – Everest Windows – 188
  • June 8 – BP – 10,000 worldwide
  • June 8 – Mulberry – 375
  • June 5 – Victoria’s Secret – 800 at risk
  • June 5 – Bentley – 1,000
  • June 4 – Aston Martin – 500
  • June 4 – Lookers – 1,500
  • May 29 – Belfast International Airport – 45
  • May 28 – Debenhams (in second announcement) – ‘hundreds’ of jobs
  • May 28 – EasyJet – 4,500 worldwide
  • May 26 – McLaren – 1,200
  • May 22 – Carluccio’s – 1,000
  • May 21 – Clarks – 900
  • May 20 – Rolls-Royce – 9,000
  • May 20 – Bovis Homes – unknown number
  • May 19 – Ovo Energy – 2,600
  • May 19 – Antler – 164
  • May 15 – JCB – 950 at risk
  • May 13 – Tui – 8,000 worldwide
  • May 12 – Carnival UK (owns P&O Cruises and Cunard) – 450
  • May 11 – P&O Ferries – 1,100 worldwide
  • May 5 – Virgin Atlantic – 3,150
  • May 1 – Ryanair – 3,000 worldwide
  • April 30 – Oasis Warehouse – 1,800
  • April 29 – WPP – unknown number
  • April 28 – British Airways – 12,000
  • April 23 – Safran Seats – 400
  • April 23 – Meggitt – 1,800 worldwide
  • April 21 – Cath Kidston – 900
  • April 17 – Debenhams – 422
  • March 31 – Laura Ashley – 268
  • March 30 – BrightHouse – 2,400 at risk
  • March 27 – Chiquito – 1,500 at risk