Capacity in winter
Ryanair boss offers planes for deportations
April 24, 2024, 5:03 p.m
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The British government wants to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. Ryanair boss O’Leary would like to make the low-cost airline’s planes available for this purpose – but not in the summer months.
If necessary, Ryanair would make aircraft available to fly people who arrived irregularly to Rwanda. The British Parliament had previously approved the controversial plan to deport asylum seekers to the East African country.
Rynair would “gladly” operate these flights, the financial news agency “Bloomberg” quotes airline boss Michael O’Leary. The government has not yet contacted us. “If it was the winter schedule, we had free aircraft available, and the government was looking for additional deportation flights, we would be happy to make an offer,” said O’Leary.
Through the law, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants to enable people who come to the UK without valid documents to be brought to Rwanda regardless of their origin and without having their asylum application examined. They should apply for asylum there so that they can stay in Rwanda if approved. There are no plans to return to Great Britain. Rwanda will receive hundreds of millions of pounds in return.
Law not yet in force
The Supreme Court in London declared the project illegal just a few months ago. The new law is intended to overturn this ruling – among other things by classifying Rwanda as a safe third country. The flights should start in ten to twelve weeks, said Sunak. King Charles III The law still has to come into force.
Polarizing statements are a trademark of O’Leary. For example, he described concerns about climate change as “complete nonsense” and publicly announced that very overweight Ryanair passengers would have to pay an extra fee.