Ryanair bookings surge as boss Michael O’Leary calls UK quarantine plans "unenforceable"

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has called for the removal of the UK's quarantine measures, labelling the government's plans as "unenforceable".

Last week Britain announced a 14-day quarantine from June 8 for arrivals from abroad just as other nations such as Italy and Spain declared plans to ease theirs.

O'Leary wants to see the measures dropped.

O'Leary said that many customers in the UK appeared to be ignoring the rules anyway, with booking rates in recent days showing the airline’s 1,000 daily flights were likely to be more than half-full in July.

He said: "The UK and Ireland will either quietly drop them or drop them as another easing measure in the next week or two. I am confident of that.

“There will be movement, because people are just going to ignore it. We have seen a big surge in bookings on our flights out of Ireland and the UK to Spain, Portugal and Italy over the weekend, and that seems to be continuing this week.”

O’Leary said the booking patterns made him “reasonably confident” that the low-cost giant’s planes would be 50 per cent to 60 per cent full when it resumes flying in July.