Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair: "Fars will rise from 40 to 50 euros, but low cost is not dead"

For Ryanair, this is proving to be a bittersweet summer, because although they have managed to

, they have been going on strikes by their cabin crew in several European countries, including Spain, since June.

Added to this is an inflationary context that is making flying more expensive.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary believes there

around €40 to €50 "in the next five years".

Despite this increase, he stresses

.

"What we will no longer see are tickets at 9.99 euros, but that does not mean that low cost is going to end," stressed the top executive of the main airline in Spain for passenger traffic during a meeting with the international press held in the company's headquarters in Dublin.

A few weeks ago he

, although he insists that this does not mean the end of the low cost era.

"We will continue to fly with cheap prices and the more passengers we have, the cheaper the prices will be," says the manager, who also believes that in this inflationary context the Irish company can benefit from the competition.

"In the next two years,

, because we have cheaper rates," he insists.

Ryanair is the first airline in Europe and the second in the world by number of operations (flights operated).

It transports 165 million passengers and in Spain they hope to go from the 46 they had before the pandemic to 50 million this 2023. This summer they are already at 115% of the traffic they had before the pandemic, which is 15% more.

"communist unions"

This growth and the good figures have been clouded by the strikes, although O'Leary, always controversial in his statements, believes that they are not having any impact on activity.

He criticizes that, in Spain,

, barely represent between 5% and 8% of the cabin crew."

"They make strikes every week that are not having an impact and are not being supported," says the Ryanair manager.

He has insisted that

, which intend to extend the stoppages until January if there is no agreement with the company, and has criticized the pressure they are exerting "as a matter of image."

"They don't represent anyone,

she said.

He has also criticized that they attribute all the delays to the strike, when "they are not the cause" and has recalled that there are other airlines, such as Lufthansa or Air France, that accumulate more cancellations or delays.

In the case of the German, which has had to cancel some 800 flights this Friday due to the strike of its pilots.

In Spain,

according to the airline, so the sum of all the wage claims of the unions "means an increase of 165%", they explain from the company.

Increase

O'Leary has spoken about the growth plans of the airline,

which are more sustainable, and has yet to receive another 137, in order to have 210 aircraft in 2016. four years there will be a total of 225 new aircraft to be able to cover the traffic increase plans.

In addition, as O'Leary explained, they are negotiating with airports in Spain, Portugal or Greece to open other routes and continue this expansion.

With regard to the prospects for autumn, he is optimistic, "despite the fact that everything is very fragile" and despite the fact that "all day long there is talk of crises, rising prices, the economic crisis, the crisis autumn..."

They plan to open a new pilot training center in Spain or Portugal, because, according to O'Leary "we want to have more pilots and crew members of these nationalities. Ryanair plans to hire 1,000 new pilots and 2,000 or 3,000 new cabin crew and in the next five years 6,000 jobs will be created.In addition to Ryanair, the group has the airlines Lauda and Buzz.It has 90 bases and operates in 225 airports.In

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