Ryanair is reconsidering its deployment of aircraft and further expansion in the UK as a result of the Brexit decision.
Chief Executive Michael O’Leary might doubt that “actual Brexit” will ever occur, but meanwhile Ryanair is making plans for next year with regard to the new aircraft arriving and where they will or won’t be based.
Kenny Jacobs, Ryanair’s Chief Marketing Officer says that,
“This is not the end of the world but it is a period of unprecedented uncertainty. The UK will be in recession and the UK consumer will travel less and spend less, that is a certainty.
“On the flip side, a weaker pound will mean Europeans travel to the UK more as their Euro goes further and they may want to say goodbye to a wonderful country and fantastic people before Boris and Nigel pull up the drawbridge”.
“If the UK stays in the single market then things should continue as normal and the UK will stay part of open skies, if the UK leaves the single market then we have a lot of complications.
“We are hopeful and we expect both sides will find a way to maintain the free movement of people. But while the is uncertainty and currency fluctuations businesses including ourselves will be slow to make additional investments in the UK.
“We have 50 new aircraft joining our fleet next year and we now don’t expect to deploy any of these in the UK market at this stage, instead we will focus on markets that are part of the single market like Italy, Spain and Germany.”
