Ryanair DAC, CEO, Eddie Wilson at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit - Airlines in Transition 2024

Transcript

Eddie Wilson:I would have never thought we were going to be grounded for as long as we were during COVID but there's no substitute for hard work, planning, and doing the simple things well and executing. And I think that's what we do every day, and that's how we've been so successful. There's no secret to this other than Hard work, been well capitalized, and planned forward. And I think that's the only insurance policy you can have because something's going to happen in this industry. I don't know what's going to be thrown at us next, but there's always something coming along. We don't particularly want to be loved either, but I think the people who fly with us know what we deliver, and that's, you know, great value, on-time, safe flights. And increasingly with our size, More connectivity, more frequency, and you can get anywhere you want in Europe. I think we've done more for European integration than anyone else in terms of European citizens can move around Europe. I mean, deregulation was the biggest thing that the European Union ever did. You know, a brave Irishman, Peter Sutherland, did that way back with Jacques Delors. And I think the European Commission needs to get back to more of that bold-setting policies which we don't have at the moment. I mean, ATC could be sorted out. Like, why are European citizens sitting around in UK or Spain or Greece on the ground when French air traffic controllers are on strike? Let's do something about it, you know. So I think this industry needs to change. We don't really mind what commentators think about us. I think we've opened up the regions, we deliver jobs, tourism, connectivity at affordable prices, and we've really invested in sustainability. And I think it's a great news story as well. I think you've got to support consolidation. You know, you have too many— we went through years of small airlines coming up, going bust, and I think in the end it will suit the consumer because you'll have stability. It's already a regulated industry. I mean, I think it's interesting You heard the head of British American Tobacco the other day talking about, you know, that they've got to live with regulation. We're living with regulation and we're still able to knock out the lowest fares because we've got the lowest cost. We've got one type of aircraft, one type of airport deal, one type of productivity, aircraft optimization. And ultimately, people don't really much care. It's a commodity. They want to get there. On time, and they want to be able to plan and they want to get there for the lowest fares. And we deliver that. And when people get off at the other end, once there's been no delays, they don't really care who they travel with. But it's all driven by price and reliability, and that's what we execute well on, and that's what we do every day we go to work. Well, don't forget, the gap between us and our competitors has got even wider post-COVID because They absorbed cost into their business that they never got rid of. So you'll still get the lowest fares in Europe with Ryanair. But you're quite right, fares are rising and they're rising because capacity hasn't returned. We're only back to about 90% of what we were pre-COVID for the industry. Ryanair is back to 130% and the industry capacity would have grown, we believe, by another 20%, 20-25%. So if you've got less of something, prices are going to go up. There's inflationary pressures generally driven by, driven by staff, whether that's in airports or your own staff as well. So that's, that's feeding in. But I think some markets are going to be in crisis over the next 5 years. Germany, I would call out. Portugal, I would call out. You know, you've got airports and regions that don't realize there's no new short-haul capacity coming into the market. Airbus are full. Boeing are full. Where are the aircraft going to come from? And what that will mean is that that's going to get less capacity, higher fares. And Ryanair in that environment is taking delivery of 300 aircraft over the next 5 to 7 years. So if there's any airports watching at the moment, if you want Ryanair capacity and you have a letter from us, send it back to us and you'll get that capacity because nobody else is going to be able to move the dial at your airport. Airports are now competing. People used to think of airports competing with the airport down the road. Copenhagen is now competing with Dublin. You know, Baden-Baden is competing with Puglia, and people can't get their heads around that because it's not that it's nice to go to Puglia or it's nice to go to Baden-Baden. It's where the airlines are going to put that capacity. And if they don't put the capacity in, you can't fly there. And we're the only airline, I think, that can move the dial on that because we've got a 300 aircraft order. Don't forget, we're in the second last year of our MAX 8200 order. We have 147 of those 210 aircraft. We think that we are going to get somewhere between 40, 45 aircraft, additional aircraft this summer, and then the balance next summer. Then we've got a gap of about 12 to 18 months before the MAX 10, which is due to be certified next year. And that means then we've got this huge growth coming. From 2027 onwards, of 300 additional aircraft, they're going to go into Europe somewhere, and we can change airports, regions, and cities with that. And that's why we're getting such a reception from from regional airports in particular, but major airports as well, because they know there's nobody else coming to put that capacity back. If you talk to an airport, not one of them can tell you what the tails are going to be on the aircraft that are coming because there isn't anyone else at the moment. Of scale to deliver. We would see that almost 70% of our traffic touches major airports. So, you know, look at where we are now. Like, I mean, we were in Frankfurt, but look at— we're in Copenhagen, we're in Arlanda, you know, we're in Dublin, we're in Gatwick, we're in Stansted, we're in Rome Fiumicino, we're in Madrid, Barcelona. They're all major airports. We've got huge hubs there. But even on what people used to traditionally think of holiday airports, Malaga is now a technology center. Why? It's a nice place to be, but you know, the Googles and some of the American banks are there because there's connectivity to every city in Europe. Ryanair has 16 aircraft based there every day, and most, and most of that capacity remains there throughout the winter. Places like Alicante, 16 based aircraft. Valencia getting up to 14 based aircraft. And I'm just talking because we're in here in Spain today. So those cities with that type of connectivity mean that people can get to and from there. And I think regional cities are actually going to have a lot more to offer, particularly in this working-from-home environment where they can sell the benefits of their cities and say, we've got great connectivity around Europe. So it's not all about the airport.

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