Ryanair wants early start on open skies in Brexit

Ryanair on Wednesday urged the Prime Minister to end a year of delays and uncertainty for the travel industry by addressing Europe’s “open-skies” agreement early in Brexit talks.

Europe’s biggest low-cost airline, which carries 44 million UK passengers every year, was a vocal Remain campaigner.

It now wants to see Theresa May concentrate on retaining so-called “open skies” for UK airlines across Europe.

The agreement has allowed any EU airline to fly between any two points in Europe since 1994.

Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs told the Standard: “The election showed that there is no appetite for a hard Brexit.

“Hopefully now we will see a focus on the economy, jobs and growth, rather than on immigration.”

The talks are due to start on Monday.

Ryanair has been installing more capacity at European bases rather than in the UK, one of its biggest markets, because it fears that growth will collapse following the exit from the EU.

Its own business grew by 15% in the UK last year, but will only see growth of 6% in the current financial year.

“We’ve been calling for action on this for a year, and seen nothing. Now it’s time for them to get down to it,” Jacobs said.

“The travel and tourism industry provides 12% of jobs in the UK and 10% of GDP growth. They need to address the matter of open skies urgently.”