Airline bailouts ‘crack cocaine to the usual addicts’– Ryanair

The multi-billion dollar programme of state aid for European airlines by France, Germany and Italy is a case of, “providing crack cocaine…to the usual addicts”, says Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary. The Ryanair chief executive was speaking on live web interview yesterday when he was asked whether the UK government was an outlier in not providing the same level of state support for airlines as  France, Germany and Italy. He instead criticised the three largest EU economies for providing funds to support airlines when the majority of European countries were not. O’Leary drew a line between using payroll support schemes, which Ryanair