LONDON (Reuters) – Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said Britain should focus on adding capacity at airports other than London’s Heathrow and lowering passenger taxes as he laid out plans to deploy an extra 100 aircraft in the UK in the next eight years.
British finance minister Rachel Reeves has just given the government’s backing to a long-delayed new runway at Heathrow Airport as part of her plan to revitalise the country’s sluggish economy.
O’Leary said on Wednesday he did not expect Heathrow’s third runway to be built any time soon.
“You could grow today in Manchester or Birmingham. You could grow at Stansted,” O’Leary told reporters in London.
“I don’t personally think a third runway in Heathrow is likely. I suspect a second runway in Gatwick is more deliverable,” he told reporters.
Ryanair is due to receive 300 new aircraft in the next eight years, and a third of those will go into Britain, which accounts for about 40% of its business.
The company plans major investment in other British airports along with the 100 aircraft.
O’Leary said the British government should focus on developing other airports in places like Bournemouth or Edinburgh and lowering passenger taxes if it wants to boost economic growth.
(Reporting by Joanna Plucinska; Writing by Conor Humphries and Sarah Young; Editing by William James and Jane Merriman)
