Ryanair's number one, Michael O'Leary confirms the rumors published in recent days on a possible interest by the Irish airline in Alitalia.
"Ryanair has presented an expression of interest for Alitalia and would be interested in purchasing if the commissioners undertake to make important changes and restructuring within the company, otherwise we will not be interested". This was stated by the CEO of Ryanair who, however, specified that he had no intention of "buying any slots".
“We have great respect for the Italian government but we cannot do something that goes against the interests of our company. We don't want it to disappear, we want it to stay on the market, but it has to make big changes,” he continued. The first need, according to the CEO, will be to break the ten-year bond between Alitalia and politics: "We have a plan that we think would help Alitalia grow, but if we were to manage it - he added - we would not want interference from Italian politics or the trade unions, we don't work that way”.
If Ryanair were to acquire control of the former national airline - O'Leary reiterated - "we would respectfully discuss with the Italian government, but as a government" not as a management partner. "We are open to dialogue with the unions, I'm not the devil, we do it all the time abroad: but we don't want a situation in which the unions then complain to the government and go on strike".
O'Leary explained that he had submitted a feeder offer, ie a project which plans to feed Alitalia traffic through cooperation with medium-haul Ryanair flights and to sell the Italian company's flights on its website. Not only that, in the event that the agreement fails, the Irish company would also have a plan B: the company would be "interested in growing in Italy and in filling the void that Alitalia could leave, immediately fielding 20 aircraft that could become 40".
At the same time, Ryanair's CEO presented the record data relating to bookings for the summer of 2017, speaking of "traffic growing by over 12% in Italy, which will go from 32 to 36 million customers at the lowest fares" .
