The misfortune of some makes the happiness of others.
An adage that the boss of Ryanair has made his own.
As the airline industry suffers the most serious crisis in its history, Michael O'Leary views the situation with an interested eye.
Read also: The interminable descent into hell of the airlines
According to him, the collapse of its competitors will open up new opportunities on the European market.
“In my 30 years in the industry, I have never seen such a cleanup,”
he said in an interview with the
Financial Times
.
And to add that
“the real seismic change of the Covid will be the growth opportunities across Europe.
They are much more important than after the financial crisis or September 11 ”
.
The CEO of the Irish company, which predicts that air traffic in Europe should register a drop of 15%, assures that he has already started discussions with the airports of Italy and Spain in order to recover slots left vacant by other companies in difficulty.
“Someone has to step up and take that capacity,”
he added.
“The question is to know which airports are the most commercial to quickly regain their traffic in the summer of 2021,”
he said.
According to the British media, Ryanair could arrive at London Stansted airport, reclaiming the place left by easyJet.
Three recovery scenarios
But the optimism of Michael O'Leary cannot hide the losses racked up by his company.
In the first half of its staggered financial year ended at the end of September, the group had lost 197 million euros against a profit of 1.15 billion euros a year earlier.
Its turnover has plunged 78% to 1.18 billion euros, according to a statement from the company.
Globally, since the onset of the health crisis that shut down almost the entire airline industry, companies have seen their revenues cut threefold, from $ 838 billion to $ 328 billion, as 'explained an article in
Le Figaro
.
Hopes of seeing travelers return to their planes are now based on coronavirus vaccines which have begun to be administered in several countries including the United Kingdom and France.
According to Eurocontrol forecasts at the beginning of November, three recovery scenarios are possible.
A first, the most optimistic, foresees a return to the 2019 level in 2024 if the vaccination is widely deployed this summer.
A second forecast predicts that the traffic in 2024 will only reach 92% of that of 2019 if the vaccination is not deployed until the summer of 2022. Finally, the most pessimistic scenario foresees a return to 100% of the traffic. than in 2029.
