A report by 9News says that struggling airlines Qantas and Virgin Australia are on the cusp of boom time with news a coronavirus vaccine is close, according to Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, who is reported to have rubbished aviation industry forecasts that the sector will take years to recover from the pandemic downturn.
Speaking at World Travel Market he said, “There’s going to be an enormous snapback on travel demand,” adding he expected Ryanair passenger numbers to bounce back to almost normal levels by the middle of next year, saying, “I’ve heard a lot of rubbish coming from legacy airlines that it’ll be 2035 till the volumes come back,” adding, “Rubbish”, and “Volumes will go back in 2021 or 2022 pretty quickly.”
Mr O’Leary said his predictions were based on coronavirus vaccines being “widely available to high-risk groups” by March next year, with Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said Australia was well-placed to have vaccines in the country by March.
The report says that against a backdrop of Qantas posting record-revenue losses and Virgin going into voluntary administration, Mr O’Leary projected Ryanair was “at the dawn of an extraordinary era of growth”, with if accurate, the news will breathe new life into Australian carriers, who are many months into the devastating and complete shutdown of their international routes.
An edited report from 9News by John Alwyn-Jones
