Europe's biggest budget airline, Ryanair, has accused rivals of begging for state aid when they should be cutting fares and keeping passengers moving after last week's US attacks.
Ryanair's Chief Executive, Michael O'Leary, said his airline's bookings were holding up in the wake of the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities by hijacked planes - and that rivals were reaching for the 'begging bowl' unnecessarily. 'People are still flying and we see no reason why that should change,' he said.
Major rivals like British Airways, Europe's biggest airline, have announced massive job cuts and approached governments for help in overcoming a downturn in air travel and increase in costs after the attacks. The US government leaders have agreed a $15 billion bailout of the nation's airline industry, fuelling pleas from international airlines worldwide for some assistance as well.
But Ryanair and another big budget carrier, easyJet, say that state aid is unwarranted and that some airlines were already in difficulty before the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11.
'We continue to take the same number of bookings per week as we did before the tragic events in the US,' O'Leary said. Referring to plans for heavy job losses in the wake of the attacks, he added that some airlines had already fallen on hard times with a slowdown in the global economy and would have gone ahead with mass layoffs regardless of the attacks.
'I think there were going to be large job losses amongst airlines who were already losing money before last week. Last week's events may have brought it forward,' he said.
EasyJet took a similar stance but says governments should be stimulating demand for air travel, not bailing out airlines. In the UK, it has suggested that airport taxes be abolished.
Ryanair said on Tuesday it saw no reason to change consensus estimates for its earnings despite the attacks in the US.
