Ryanair boss O'Leary challenges UK prime minister to cut tax

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham should make "everyday fixes" by cutting air passenger duty and dropping plans to let mayors bring in a tourism levy, the boss of Europe's biggest airline has said.

Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary accused the British prime minister and his Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander of "everyday spin", with a proposal to block airlines from charging parents extra to sit with their children on planes.

Burnham and Alexander have also announced plans to stop airlines making passengers pay to amend the name on their flight booking, if they need to correct a typo.

Burnham said: "People are fed up with these little charges that add up, so I'm putting a stop to them.

"This is what our everyday fixes are all about – giving people room to breathe by tackling the small irritations that catch people out, waste their time and cost them money."

Ryanair CEO O'Leary said UK airlines already seat families together without a charge and allow passengers to make small changes to their personal details before departure fee-free.

O'Leary said Alexander's "press release is designed to cover over the damage that this Labour government has inflicted on UK air travel" by the decision to raise air passenger duty in April this year.

The tax went from £13 per head to £15 for most passengers in economy seating on short-haul flights leaving the UK. This amounts to "GBP60 for a family of four", O'Leary said.

O'Leary also said that Martin Rolfe, chief executive of the UK's National Air Traffic Services, was still in post after his organisation suffered two technical problems within a fortnight of each other which left flights grounded throughout the UK.

The British government has a 49% golden share in the air traffic control provider.

An initial report by NATS into the first incident on September 8 found the failure was caused by a "software defect" and that the fault had happened "in the space of a millisecond". Rolfe apologised for the September 8 issue, saying he took "full responsibility".

O'Leary continued: "If Andy Burnham is serious about making 'everyday fixes' then he should start by abolishing £15 air passenger duty and scrap his stupid plan to allow regional mayors to 'double tax' UK visitors.

"This is a prime minister who talks a lot but when push comes to shove, delivers zero action."

MPs are in the process of debating a new set of rules for travel companies, as the Civil Aviation Bill makes its way through parliament.

The proposed new law will give ministers a flexible power to draw up a list of passenger rights and a list of duties which both airlines and airports have.

Burnham and Alexander have planned to require airlines to sit children aged under 14 near their parents or accompanying adults free of charge.

According to the UK Department for Transport, an arrangement to sit together can currently cost a parent and child up to £104 on a return journey.

They have also announced a crackdown on bad behaviour by passengers on aircraft, with a plan to work with airlines and trade unions on a new system for sharing information about disruptive passengers.

Airlines logged more than 1,000 serious disruptive passenger incidents in 2025, government figures show, including what it described as a mid-air brawl which caused a flight to be diverted.

Using the new system, airlines could choose to ban persistently disruptive passengers from their aircraft.

Mayors and other local leaders were told last month that they would be given powers to charge an overnight visitor levy, to collect money from people who choose to visit their areas.

Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner said at the time the move "will give mayors the choice to raise and reinvest funding where it's needed most – it'll help support the local services, public spaces and attractions that both residents and visitors rely on, with decisions taken by people who know their area best".

O'Leary has previously said: "We don't have any great fundamental philosophical difference with his regional tax, where you allow the regional mayors to add a tax on hotel nights, but that is a double tax on tourism.

"Abolish air passenger duty. You can't tax tourists on the way into the UK and then double tax them for the hotel night."

UK Chancellor John Healey is due to deliver his first budget on October 28.

Ryanair shares last traded at EUR23.62 each in Dublin.

source: PA

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