Ryanair's chief executive Eddie Wilson has said the airline will lift threats to close its Cork and Shannon bases for the winter if the Government relaxes its quarantine restrictions on passengers flying into this country, especially those flying from the UK.
Eddie Wilson called on the Government to adopt the approach taken by the Europe Commission, which he said is due to be published later this week.
He said this "will see the vast majority of Europe return to flying and abolition of 14-day quarantine."
The European Commission earlier this month proposed a common traffic light system for EU member states to coordinate border controls and remedy the current patchwork of coronavirus restrictions on travellers across Europe.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Mr Wilson said the UK's inclusion on Ireland's Green List would be "critical" to ensuring that Cork and Shannon can stay open.
The Government need to give consumers certainty and need to show leadership in their decision-making on travel advice, Mr Wilson said.
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He also criticised the Government for not updating the Green List to include countries which have a lower incidence of Covid-19 than Ireland, some with "50% less Covid".
"Cases in Ireland are coming from meat factories, and households. They have nothing to do with travel," he said.
Mr Wilson said it will take time to rebuild consumer confidence in air travel, but he appealed to the Government to allow passengers "to get back to some level of certainty".
"People need to get back to some level of certainty of where they can fly to and then it will be our job to convince them of the measures we have had in place since July 1, like air filtration," he stated.
