- Title: Brexit to have no long-term impact on Ryanair - O'Leary
- Date: 1st October 2019
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (OCTOBER 1, 2019) (REUTERS) RYANAIR CHIEF EXECUTIVE MICHAEL O'LEARY AND REUTERS' GLOBAL INDUSTRY EDITOR, TIM HEPHER SITTING DOWN (SOUNDBITE) (English) REUTERS' GLOBAL INDUSTRY EDITOR, TIM HEPHER, SAYING: "The UK has been your largest, or one of your largest markets pretty much for most of your history, how do you see Brexit affecting your business over the next 10 years? Looking beyond the October 31 deadline." (SOUNDBITE) (English) RYANAIR CHIEF EXECUTIVE MICHAEL O'LEARY, SAYING: "If you look out long enough, Tim, I don't think Brexit has any effect on our business. Because if you look out long enough, no matter what happens, and nobody knows what the hell is going to happen in the next couple of weeks or months on Brexit, ultimately the UK - whether it leaves the European Union or doesn't leave the European Union - we'll do a trade deal with the European Union. I don't think there's any way of going back to having kind of, the UK not being a member of open skies, that you won't have remarkably porous borders between the UK and Europe, or that the Brexiteers or some of the head-bangers in the ERG haven't realised that yet. But ultimately, the UK's national interest is best-served by staying in the European Union, it's nuts to leave it. But if you are going to leave, the first thing you've got to do on the day after you leave is re-negotiate a trade deal with the European Union, it's still going to be the UK's biggest trading partner. Am I confident of anything in the next 5-10 weeks? No. I have no idea what's going to happen. I expect an unbalance will happen, that there's going to be some kind of...that Brexit with a deal. The deal will look remarkably close to what Mrs. May had with a couple of commas and dots changed." (SOUNDBITE) (English) RYANAIR CHIEF EXECUTIVE MICHAEL O'LEARY, SAYING: "I think a hard border between the north and the republic (of Ireland) is almost un-thinkable and yet it's going to be imposed on us by the UK and by Europe if there is a no-deal Brexit. The challenge of a hard border is once you start having, wherever it's going to be, once you start having border controls or border crossings, you have targets. There's enough lunatics running around there that some lunatic, either on the catholic side or the protestant side is going to start shooting at the targets." (SOUNDBITE) (English) RYANAIR CHIEF EXECUTIVE MICHAEL O'LEARY, SAYING: "It's madness! But unfortunately we're in that period of time here in the UK where there's a kind of political craziness going on and it just has to play itself out." O'LEARY AND HEPHER SHAKING HANDS, AUDIENCE APPLAUDING
- Embargoed: 15th October 2019 11:12
- Keywords: Brexit Thomas Cook airline Package holidays Michael O'Leary Future of travel Ryanair Ryanair Group CEO Irish regional airline
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Company News Markets,Economic Events
- Reuters ID: LVA001AZ9NFPJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Britain has no choice but to agree an orderly exit from the European Union because the disruption of a hard Brexit would be too damaging to the British economy and to peace in Ireland, Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday (October 1).
Once the "political craziness" in Britain has played itself out, Europe's largest low-cost carrier does not expect an impact on its business, O'Leary said at a Reuters Newsmaker event in London.
"If you look out long enough, I don't think Brexit has any effect on our business," O'Leary said, on the basis that ultimately Britain would have no choice but to make a trade deal and retain the Open Skies aviation agreement with the EU.
"It's nuts to leave (the EU), but if you are going to leave, the first thing you've got to do on the day after you leave is renegotiate a trade deal with the European Union."
O'Leary campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU in the June 2016 referendum and was one of the most vocal airline executives highlighting the risks of Brexit to the sector.
Since then, Britain and the European Union have agreed a deal to allow flights to continue in the short-term and O'Leary has come to the conclusion that the damage of a British no-deal exit would be too severe.
But long-term optimism does not diminish the threat of uncertainty in the coming weeks, he said.
"Am I confident of anything in the next 5-10 weeks? No. I have no idea what's going to happen," he said, adding that the government would ultimately be forced to return to a deal along the lines of that brokered by former British Prime Theresa May but rejected in parliament.
O'Leary, who lives around 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the Northern Ireland border said any introduction of border infrastructure could lead to violence.
"I'm not sure how you can go back to checks... anywhere, on the border, 5 miles away from the border, that won't ultimately become a target for a tiny minority of misguided individuals," he said.
"We should be very careful," he added.
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