Ryanair launches Belfast flights to sunspots, but says EU-wide vaccine passport is 'unrealistic'

Airline returns to the airport it exited 10 years ago with eight new summer routes from Northern Ireland to sunshine destinations

Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson poured cold water on the prospects that the EU will have rolled out a full Europe-wide vaccines passport by the holiday season. Picture: Denis Minihane

Ryanair has hugely expanded its plans for summer flights out of Belfast to Spain and other sunspots, pointedly citing the fast pace of the rollout of vaccines in the North, but the chief of the Irish airline believes the EU won't have readied a vaccines passport any time soon.

The airline said it will launch eight new summer routes from June out of Belfast City Airport, marking a return to the city airport it had exited over 10 years ago. The flights are a mixture of daily, weekday, and twice-weekly services to the Spanish destinations of Alicante, Barcelona, Ibiza, Malaga, Mallorca, and Valencia, as well as flights to Milan and Bergamo in Italy, and Faro in Portugal.

Vaccine confidence boost

Ryanair said the UK government's "highly successful rollout" of vaccines will boost the confidence of holidaymakers to travel this summer. 

However, its chief executive Eddie Wilson poured cold water on the prospects that the EU will have rolled out a full Europe-wide vaccines passport to boost travel by the holiday season because he believes it won't be readied in time.

He told the Pat Kenny Show that it was "unrealistic" to believe that a vaccine passport system would be agreed, as economies start reopening in the coming months. The authorities should focus on vaccinations "rather than sideshows like quarantines in hotels from red countries we have no [direct] connections with", he told the Newstalk show. 

Exemptions from quarantine

Spain currently requires passengers from Ireland into mainland Spain and the Canary and Balearic Islands to show they have taken a negative Covid-19 test 72 hours before their arrival, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs website on travel advice. They must also submit a locator form online or by an app. 

Ryanair Group chief executive Michael O'Leary had told a British parliamentary committee on Wednesday it hoped to fly up to 70% of 2019 passenger numbers this summer, thanks to Covid-19 vaccines and more Covid testing, provided travellers who have been vaccinated or had negative tests are made exempt from quarantine rules.

He had also warned that a mooted UK government vaccine passport was unlikely to be ready in time for the peak holiday season. In addition to widespread vaccinations, Mr O'Leary forecast that pre-departure PCR tests, which can cost more than €100, would fall in price by the summer, further opening up travel.