Ryanair CEO warns of European airline failures if jet fuel price stays high

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]Firstly, there's two aspects to it.

[00:00:01]Obviously, pricing. Pricing has mushroomed since March. Jet A1 was about $80 a barrel in March. It's now $150 a barrel. In Ryanair, we've hedged 80% of our jet fuel out to March 2027. So, we are the best insulated, most hedged airline in Europe. And we can guarantee people there'll be no price increases, no fuel hedging, no fuel search levies, surcharges, regardless what happens this summer.

[00:00:24]Supply. We were very worried about supply in the UK about 2 or 3 weeks ago, but it does seem to have improved. We have a daily call with all our suppliers, and we're dealing with the biggest oil companies in the world. The vast majority of Europe's jet A1 is coming from America, Norway, West Africa. There's no disruption to those supplies. In fact, lifting the Russian embargo has also improved jet A1 supply into some of these Central European countries like Poland, Romania, etc. It is increasingly unlikely that there will be supply disruptions as long as nothing alters the flows of the the the the supplies coming from West Africa, America, and Norway into Europe. Most of what comes through the Gulf is going to Asia, but obviously, we want to see the Straits of Hormuz reopened as quickly as possible because that is driving pricing.

[00:01:08]But if pricing stays higher for longer this summer, we think a number of our airline competitors in Europe are going to face real financial difficulties. I think there will be failures if it continues at $150 a barrel into kind of July, August, September, then you'll see a European airline fail. And that, you know, in the medium term would probably be good for Ryanair's business model.

[00:01:28]And your counterpart at Wizz Air, the CEO of Wizz Air, is talking about the need to relax passenger compensation rules if planes can't fly because of jet fuel shortages. Do you agree, or is that seizing an opportunity to try and push back against rules that they don't like?

[00:01:45]>> Well, I mean, either rules don't apply if there's a jet fuel shortage. That would clearly be extraordinary circumstances, so the EU 261 rules don't apply anyway. But I mean, you know, Joseph talks a lot of rubbish at the best of times anyway. I mean, I've got This has The crisis has clearly demonstrated is the scandal of Europe's environmental taxes on air travel. We have this mad ETS system where we only tax flights within Europe. We exempt all the non-European flights or flights going to out in and outside of Europe.

[00:02:12]And I think it calls into question again the abject failure of Ursula von der Leyen and the European Commission to do anything about Europe's competitiveness.

[00:02:19]If you really want to be competitive in Europe, we need to reduce ETS, bring it in line with CORSIA, which is what the non-European airlines pay, and that would lower air fares for all European consumers, we think, by 10 or 15%, and would at least demonstrate that Ursula von der Leyen has some idea how to deliver competitiveness. Sadly, she doesn't, and therefore, she'll do nothing about ETS, and she'll do nothing about ATC reform, either. Talking about charges on airlines, you recently announced that you're going to close your base at Berlin Airport because of the charges there. Are there any other European airports you are currently reviewing that you may pull away from?

[00:02:51]>> I think we are constantly reviewing airports in Germany. I mean, the German aviation model is just completely dead.

[00:02:57]I mean, they they have completely destroyed flying to and from Germany.

[00:03:01]Since COVID, Germany's ATC fees have trebled. They've introduced security fees, which have doubled.

[00:03:06]Passenger charges have doubled. And then you've an airport like Berlin Brandenburg, which whose traffic has got fallen by 35% since COVID. And their solution that is to increase fees by 50%, and then tell the airlines we want to go up another 10%. You know, the myth of German inefficiency needs to be exposed.

[00:03:24]Germany is a high-cost, inefficient economy where the government believes it can tax its way to competitiveness. You can't, and you're going to continue to fail. Particularly when airline countries like Sweden, Slovakia, Italy are abolishing environmental taxes. The way forward for more competitiveness in Europe is abolish environmental taxes.

[00:03:42]Yes, we need to decarbonize, but we need to decarbonize by investing in new technology aircraft, not taxing consumers.

[00:03:49]>> Have you spoken to Mr. Maus about this directly?

[00:03:51]>> No. I mean, I've written to him, and he is a a pilot himself. He understands this. I spoke to him when he was leader of the opposition, but you know, he's joined the government now, and it's all "Oh, the German budget this, the German budget that." The only way to solve the German budget crisis is to grow the German economy. And if you think you're going to tax your way to growth, you're doomed to fail. You've got to stop taxing air travel. Germany has a great tourist product, but nobody's going there because their airports are too expensive and raising fees, and their tax regime is insanely stupid.