Flight International online news 10:30GMT: Irish low fares airline Ryanair is predicting fare-free airline travel within a decade as its chief executive launched a blistering attack on European Union attempts to reregulate the air transport industry. 
Michael O'Leary, Ryanair chief executive, used the keynote speech at the World Low Cost Airlines Congress in Amsterdam to issue a broadside at the European Commission's recent spate of regulation, which he claimed was designed to prop up national flag carriers.
“Never have low fares airlines been more successful than in Europe, but politicians are detirmined to screw it up because they want to use state aid to protect world-class industries such as Olympic [Airways] and Alitalia,” he says.
O'Leary says he expects to win a legal challenge to new pan-European passenger compensation rules. He says since the vast majority of cancellations and delays are beyond the control of airlines, the rules are virtually unenforcable, adding that consumers had been misled to expect pay-outs for every delay.
He also predicted a shift to free flights as a standard business model within ten years. Airport operators would give airlines a cut of their retail revenues, as well as incidental revenues earned from direct baggage handling charges, onboard catering, shopping and crucially, as-yet unavailable gambling services.
“We tried in flight entertainment, which broke even, but was lower penetration than we needed, but in-flight gambling is the motherload,” he says.
JUSTIN WASTNAGE/AMSTERDAM
Source: Flight International
