Ryanair chief rounds on UK aviation watchdog

The UK’s main aviation regulation body is “incompetent” and introduces measures that tax passengers, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary told MPs today.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had been an abject failure as a regulator, Mr O’Leary told the UK's House of Commons Transport Committee.

“Why, after years of regulation by the CAA, are British passengers paying the highest airport charges in Europe?” asked Mr O’Leary.

He was also critical of airport operator, BAA and of National Air Traffic Services (Nats) which runs the UK’s air traffic control operation.

Mr O’Leary said the CAA’s “bail out” of Nats when it ran into financial difficulty after privatisation was “a tax on passengers”.

It was also a “tax on passengers” when the CAA suggested that a £1 levy be put on air tickets to further protect passengers should airlines fail. This proposal has been turned down by the British government.

Mr O’Leary said: “BAA airports charge the highest charges in Europe and these are passed on to customers.”

The Transport Committee’s chairman, Gwyneth Dunwoody, replied: “Is this not capitalism?”

Mr O’Leary said: “No, capitalism is underpinned by competition. The incompetence of the CAA has resulted in higher charges by airlines.

“We now have one of the most competitive and efficient airline operations in Britain but the least competitive and least efficient system in terms of CAA - regulated airport and Nats.”

Mr O’Leary described BAA’s spending plans at Stansted airport in Essex as “ludicrous” and that BAA regarded low-cost carriers such as Ryanair and EasyJet as “the crazy boys”.

Mr O’Leary said that he had learned that Stansted’s traffic forecasts for the next 30 years had been produced by a BAA middle manager who had not consulted airlines.

Mr O’Leary went on: “Airports talk about their care for customers while they try to ram up the charges.”

Mr O’Leary was giving evidence as part of the Transport Committee’s investigation into the work of the CAA.