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April 23, 2020The Irish low cost airline Ryanair will not resume its flights if it is necessary to leave its seats in the central row empty to maintain the safety distances to face the coronavirus emergency.

To say this, in an interview with the 'Financial Times', is Ryanair's CEO, Michael O'Leary. With this measure, the company's plans, he points out, "would be nullified". O'Leary explains that he warned the Irish government: "Either the government pays for the empty seat or we won't fly."

"We can't have profits with a 66% fill rate. Even if you do then the empty seat doesn't provide any social distancing so it's a kind of idiotic idea that still gets nothing" from the health point, he says.

O'Leary explained that he is aiming to return to more normal traffic levels in the summer of 2021, "driven by the collapse of rival airlines".

Zero tax target
In a letter sent by the director of the development of the routes of the low cost airline, Neil O 'Connor, to the Italian airports, he explains that the carrier, in resuming the service, "will give priority" to the airports that will ensure "zero taxes ( landing and airport, ed) "between May and October," zero landing tax and airport tax reduced by 50% "between November and March 2021 and" airport tax reduced by 50% "between April and October 2021.

For the same Ryanair period also calls for "no tax on new routes". According to 'O Connor, these are "reasonable stimulus measures" which "will give airports a competitive advantage to resume Ryanair's service at the first possible opportunity". "Airports that offer improved conditions compared to these basic measures - concludes the manager - will have a decisive advantage" over the others.

Onlit: The Ministry of Transport intervenes
The President of the National Observatory on Liberalization and Transport Dario Balotta who requests the intervention of the Ministry of Transport to "bring the sector back to compliance with the rules". "Evasion and tax evasion in many European states - explains Balotta - starvation wages, working hours from the early twentieth century and blackmail to the largely fragmented minor airport system (the flight in exchange for a contribution per passenger on board) are the new distinctive features of Ryanair that have characterized the last few periods, but is now exaggerating ". "The taxes paid by passengers - he concludes - must be transferred to the state without intermediation and the landing rights for operators".

EU, Court of Justice confirms sanction
Air carriers must indicate, since the publication of their price offers on the Internet, the VAT applied to domestic flights as well as the rates for payment by credit card. They must also indicate web check-in charges if no alternative free check-in method is proposed. The European Court of Justice ratified this, giving reason to the Antitrust Authority, which had fined Ryanair for publishing prices deemed incomplete on the web.