Mr. Michael O'Leary:

Those statistics are not even questioned. Everybody accepts the statistics. The reality is that the European Commission is not a robust organisation anymore. The transport Commissioner, a Romanian lady, means well but we are asking her to go up against Mr. Macron and say the Commission is going to break up the French air traffic control union or that of the Germans and remove the power of the unions by blocking their ability to shut down the skies over Europe. They would be free to go on strike but, when doing so, it would be French consumers who would take the hit. Nobody in the Commission wants to challenge the French and German Governments, even if it is in the interest of the overwhelming majority of European citizens and passengers. What we find remarkable is how little traction we have made as an industry on the environmental argument in favour of a single European sky. The environment is number one, two and three; it is a cult in Brussels at the moment, as any members who have been there will know. The environmental argument has had no traction whatsoever. When it comes to the choice between saving the environment and protecting a very small number of very powerful French air traffic controllers, the environment loses.