{"id":57589,"date":"2025-09-11T15:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/57589\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T15:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:49:08","slug":"ryanair-calls-for-robust-response-after-russian-drones-cripple-european-flights-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/57589\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryanair calls for \u2018robust response\u2019 after Russian drones cripple European flights \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Airlines face increasing security alerts in Europe, Ryanair <\/a>chief Michael O\u2019Leary<\/a> said after Russia<\/a>\u2019s drone incursion of Poland<\/a> disrupted flights across the Continent on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be an ongoing issue for all airlines and all European citizens for the next number of years,\u201d he said, speaking to reporters after the company\u2019s annual meeting of shareholders. \u201cWe can expect more disruptions unless the EU and the White House take a firm stick, preferably in the form of sanctions on Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of irritant, of Russia poking the bear, Russia irritating Europe, Russia playing games, will continue,\u201d he said, adding that he doesn\u2019t see the incursions as a \u201csafety issue, but it\u2019s certainly a disruption issue\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Leary warned that the risk from drones is that air traffic control respond to the risk by closing airports.<\/p>\n

He said 40 per cent of Ryanair\u2019s flights were delayed on Wednesday after Polish authorities shot down a number of Russian drones that had crossed into its air space.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur normal on-time performance is about 90 per cent,\u201d Mr O\u2019Leary said. \u201cThat fell yesterday to 60 per cent, so 40 per cent of our flights yesterday were delayed\u201d due to the closure of air traffic control capacity over Poland. <\/p>\n

He called for a \u201crobust response\u201d from the Government and EU, noting they have observed similar drone disruption activity in the Baltic states.<\/p>\n

Closer to home, Mr O\u2019Leary said Dublin Airport<\/a> was now hamstrung by \u201cnot one, but two illegal caps\u201d on passenger numbers.<\/p>\n

He criticised what he called a \u201cdo nothing Government, with do nothing Ministers\u201d for their failure to address the cap on passenger numbers at Dublin Airport which is subject to an annual limit of 32 million passengers each year under the conditions of planning permission for its new north runway dating back to 2007. <\/p>\n

The cap has effectively been paused following various legal challenges and is awaiting a ruling from European courts.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Leary said he expects Dublin Airport to surpass 36 million passengers this year, despite the introduction of a limits on night flights and early morning arrivals announced by An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la <\/a>in July.<\/p>\n

The caps, he said, are \u201cin breach of the EU\u2019s Freedom of Movement [rights]\u201d while also claiming they are illegal under the EU-US Open Skies agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this second stupid cap goes ahead, I suspect you\u2019ll see Aer Lingus getting blocked out of landing in United States. Then all of a sudden, [Taoiseach] Miche\u00e1l Martin and [T\u00e1naiste] Simon Harris will get up off their arse, and this cap will be scrapped within 24 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the Government had been \u201crunning around for the last two weeks, holding press conferences and setting up working groups and strategic this, that and the other\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe elected them to make decisions and to deliver, and they need to start delivering,\u201d said Mr O\u2019Leary. \u201cYou should elect me and I\u2019ll fix it by lunchtime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Leary was unanimously re-elected to his position on the board at the annual meeting. He said business was \u201cbooming\u201d for Ryanair despite \u201cslightly disappointing\u201d growth due to delays in aircraft delivery from Boeing.<\/p>\n

The airline had anticipated carrying 215 million passengers in the year had Boeing been able to fulfil its planned deliveries, or 206 million otherwise.<\/p>\n

The anticipated rate of growth is set to be picked up next year, he said, expressing confidence in the new chief executive of Boeing\u2019s commercial division, Stephanie Pope. The Ryanair boss said the staffing changes have resulted in \u201cmuch better hands-on management\u201d at Boeing\u2019s production division. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Americans don\u2019t make much any more, but they do make good planes,\u201d Mr O\u2019Leary observed to shareholders, noting the existing US administration has an \u201caggressively supportive stance towards Boeing\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Airlines face increasing security alerts in Europe, Ryanair chief Michael O\u2019Leary said after Russia\u2019s drone incursion of Poland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[7928,79,38997,26,18,19,17,1843,379,550,623],"class_list":{"0":"post-57589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-an-coimisiun-pleanala","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-daa","11":"tag-dublin-airport","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-michael-oleary","16":"tag-poland","17":"tag-russia","18":"tag-ryanair"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}