{"id":57651,"date":"2025-09-11T16:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T16:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/57651\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T16:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T16:25:11","slug":"ryanair-has-no-qualms-about-resuming-israel-flights-but-probably-wont-says-michael-oleary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/57651\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryanair has \u2018no qualms\u2019 about resuming Israel flights, but probably won\u2019t, says Michael O\u2019Leary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Airline boss says he\u2019s \u2018frustrated\u2019 by focus in Ireland on Palestinian plight while Ukraine war rages\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A demonstrator in Tel Aviv holds a sign during a protest demanding an end to the war in Gaza and the release of all hostages. Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n

Ryanair boss Michael O\u2019Leary has insisted he doesn\u2019t have any ethical qualms or concerns about the airline\u2019s brand by resuming flights to Israel, but that it probably won\u2019t bother because security issues there have been too much of a headache.<\/p>\n

He said he has \u201cabsolutely none\u201d, when asked if there were any such concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as it is safe to fly there, we\u2019ll be happy fly to Israel, we\u2019re happy to fly to Jordan and I can\u2019t wait to go back and fly to Ukraine,\u201d said the airline chief.<\/p>\n

Ryanair\u2019s flights to and from Tel Aviv have remained suspended for months as the country wages its war against Gaza.<\/p>\n

However, In June, Ryanair said it expected to resume flights at the end of next month.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A demonstrator in Tel Aviv holds a sign during a protest demanding an end to the war in Gaza and the release of all hostages. Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n

Today’s News in 90 Seconds, Thursday, September 11<\/p>\n

But now Mr O\u2019Leary said the likelihood of returning to the country are slim.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking to the Israelis at the moment,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure if we\u2019re going to go back or not. We have been messed around by the Israelis. One of the problems we have in Tel Aviv, is that there is a low-cost terminal and a normal terminal. Every time there is a security threat, they force everyone from the low-cost terminal into the high-cost terminal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have limited patience,\u201d said Mr O\u2019Leary. \u201cI think there\u2019s a real possibility that we won\u2019t bother going back to Israel after the cessation of the current war that\u2019s going on there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryanair will resume flights to Jordan this month or next month, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless the Israelis get their act together and stop messing us around, we have far more growth elsewhere in Europe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am repeatedly frustrated by the discourse in this country that is all focused on Palestine and the Palestinians, which is a tragic situation, yet there\u2019s nobody marching or protesting about Ukrainian women and children being bombed in their homes,\u201d said Mr O\u2019Leary. \u201cThat\u2019s not to diminish what\u2019s going on in Palestine, but we need a little bit more focus on what the hell is going on in Ukraine, which is on our doorstep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next week, Ryanair will also pay back an \u20ac800m bond that was raised during Covid. Next May, a further \u20ac1.2bn bond that was raised during the crisis will be paid back, leaving the airline group debt free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Airline boss says he\u2019s \u2018frustrated\u2019 by focus in Ireland on Palestinian plight while Ukraine war rages A demonstrator…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,68,19,17,71,24512,1843,72,623],"class_list":{"0":"post-57651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-gaza","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-john-mulligan","15":"tag-michael-oleary","16":"tag-palestine","17":"tag-ryanair"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57651","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=57651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}