Ryanair has warned that British passengers could face being stuck abroad after the UK’s aviation regulator blocked it from using Irish-registered planes to fly people home in emergencies.
The airline said the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had stopped a rescue flight from leaving, even though a plane was available. This, Ryanair said, puts UK travellers at greater risk.
The issue began after the CAA blocked a Ryanair plane from flying stranded passengers from Faro, Portugal, back to Manchester. The row over the incident has now escalated.
The CAA says Ryanair is breaking post-Brexit aviation rules by not registering enough of its aircraft in the UK. Ryanair argues that the regulator is being too strict and unhelpful.
Ryanair is now planning legal action against the CAA for stopping a ready-to-go plane from helping 177 passengers stuck in Portugal.
The passengers were left in Faro on April 23 after their original flight, coming from Agadir in Morocco, had to land early due to an abusive traveller.
Once on the ground, the original plane developed a technical fault and couldn’t continue. Ryanair had another plane and crew ready, but the CAA refused to approve the flight.
Eddie Wilson, head of Ryanair’s main operating company, said they had to find hotels for the 177 passengers, including 32 children, after 11:30 pm. The group only flew back to the UK the next day, around lunchtime.
Wilson said there had been a prior deal to allow Ryanair to use its full fleet for such rescue flights, but the CAA went against it.
“We had a spare plane and spare crew ready to go, but we were stopped,” he said. “This is red tape gone mad.”
He added that the CAA should be helping people get home safely, not blocking flights. He said the decision was “unconscionable.”
Ryanair has a strict policy against abusive passengers. Wilson said diverting the flight was expensive but necessary, and the airline had the resources to handle it if not for the CAA.
Irish-registered planes fly daily between UK airports like Stansted and Manchester to EU cities, he pointed out.
The CAA didn’t fully explain why it blocked the April 23 flight, but said Ryanair hadn’t registered enough planes in the UK to provide strong backup.
Post-Brexit rules require that flights within the UK and to places outside Europe’s airspace must be on UK-registered aircraft.
The CAA said Ryanair needs 18 UK-registered planes but currently has only 15, meaning it risks not being able to respond well when problems happen.
They added that Ryanair had been given some flexibility after Brexit, but that time has now passed, and more planes should be registered now.
Wilson said Ryanair’s UK fleet was big enough to meet its schedule and blamed the CAA for creating a false excuse to deny the request.
He said the final decision was made by someone who didn’t care, and that 177 people were left stranded “on a whim.”
“We’d like the CAA to go to Faro next time and explain their actions to the passengers,” he said.
