Seats on Ryanair flights could be free within 10 years, according to the boss of the budget airline.
Michael O’Leary said Ryanair hoped to offer zero fares to passengers, although they may still be liable to pay taxes in order to fly, The Sun reported.
The boss of the cheap flights airline was speaking at the Airport Operators Association conference in London, where he said that a reduction in taxes, such as the UK’s air passenger duty (APD) would eventually mean flights could be free.
According to The Guardian, he said: “I have this vision that in the next five to 10 years that the airfares on Ryanair will be free, in which case the flights will be full, and we will be making our money out of sharing the airport revenues; of all the people who will be running through airports, and getting a share of the shopping and the retail revenues at airports.”
He added that instead of promotion tickets of $15 he hoped to offer free tickets.
The airline would make money off airport revenue, such as getting a share of shopping or retail revenues, at terminals in order to cut prices.
Earlier this month O’Leary predicted that airfares would fall by 15 per cent next March.
Speaking about the first year financial results for Ryanair, O’Leary told Bloomberg TV: “We are looking at a year where as far as we can see airfares will keep falling. We are looking at extraordinary fare declines.”
He added that the company had “hedged on sterling”, which meant it would not be affected by the drop in the value of the British pound over the next 12 months.
The airline has launched eight days of “Cyber” sales to celebrate Black Friday, the US shopping event that has gone global. Today, it is offering 15 per cent off travel in December.
Yesterday, Ryanair kicked off the sale by putting 250,000 seats on sale for £9.99 ($16.70) on more than 400 routes — although passengers have to travel in January or February.
This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission.
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