RYANAIR’S CHIEF executive Michael O’Leary spends much of his time criticising the Government, but when it comes to a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty they will both be on the same side.
The Ryanair chief confirmed yesterday that he would actively campaign for a Yes vote when a second referendum is held.
He said he would campaign “personally” and through Ryanair for a Yes vote. “It’ll be a very vociferous and a very high-profile campaign on Lisbon,” he told a press conference in the Davenport Hotel in Dublin yesterday, at which he announced plans to scale back its operations at Dublin and Shannon this winter. “It would be nuts for us not to vote Yes in the Lisbon referendum,” he added. “I’m very confident that, with Ryanair’s help, the Government can get it passed.”
Mr O’Leary declined to comment further on the matter, but it is understood that Ryanair will run a high-profile advertising campaign, possibly lampooning proponents of a No vote, including Sinn Féin, and Libertas and its founder Declan Ganley.
Ryanair has been one of the main beneficiaries of the expansion of the European Union and the easing of travel restrictions among its 27 states, with its low fares proving particularly attractive in the accession states of central and eastern Europe.
Ryanair expects to carry an additional nine million passengers this year across Europe. It handled 58.5 million passengers in the year to the end of March 2009.
