Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary denies claim his airline has hiked up prices for refugees fleeing war after complaint by Ukraine ambassador to Ireland
- Ukraine ambassador accused Ryanair of hiking the prices of flights from Poland
- Country is where majority of Ukraine’s three million refugees have escaped to
- Mr O’Leary refuted the claim today, insisting there are ‘loads of cheap flights’
Michael O’Leary today claimed it is ‘completely untrue’ that Ryanair has hiked prices for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.
The 60-year-old said that when his carrier’s flights fill up, the prices naturally increase due to the drop in supply, but insisted there are still ‘loads of cheap flights out there.’
His comments came after the Ukrainian ambassador to Ireland, Larysa Gerasko, accused the low-budget airline on Tuesday of increasing prices on flights from Poland – where the majority of the three million-plus Ukrainians fleeing Vladimir Putin’s forces have escaped to.
She said she had written a letter to Ryanair and had not heard back, adding that she would be raising the issue at a meeting with Transport Minister Eamon Ryan.
But speaking at Cheltenham racecourse today, Mr O’Leary responded: ‘[It’s] completely untrue, we have very low fare fights coming to and from Poland.
‘All of the airports, we’ve checked into it, and all the flights are filling up and as they fill up they pay the highest fares.
Michael O’Leary said that when his carrier’s flights fill up, the prices naturally increase due to the drop in supply, insisting there are still ‘loads of cheap flights out there.’
The Ukrainian ambassador to Ireland, Larysa Gerasko (pictured), accused the low-budget airline on Tuesday of increasing prices on flights from Poland – where the majority of the three million-plus Ukrainians fleeing Vladimir Putin’s forces have escaped to
Refugees from Ukraine who fled to Poland queue to enter a registration point at the Tauron Arena in Krakow
‘But we have on today, tomorrow and in the coming days fares of €20 one fair, €50 one way. There’s loads of cheap flights out there.’
Asked whether people are paying the higher fares because the flights are in demand due to the war, he told Independent.ie: ‘Every flight when it fills the last few seats are the higher fares, that’s how we get to sell so many seats at €20 and €30.’
Ms Gerasko made the allegations at the European Union Affairs committee at Leinster House yesterday.
She was praising the idea of charters being officially arranged to carry refugees from Poland, which had been suggested by Sinn Fein TD John Brady.
‘We would be very grateful for that, because it is very difficult to buy tickets from Warsaw or from Krakow to Dublin,’ she said.
‘And moreover, may I address this issue to Ryanair because they raised the prices and it’s unfortunate.’
It was then that Independent Senator Sharon Keogan chimed in: ‘That’s unforgivable. It’s actually unforgivable.’
Ms Gerasko said she would raise the point with Transport Minister Eamon Ryan once he gets back from St Patrick’s Day duties abroad.
She added: ‘Unfortunately our request, or our letter (to Ryanair) never received any response, I’d say, from Ryanair, because we sent this letter, it seems to me, one week ago.’
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil Senator Gerry Horkan suggested Ryanair make flights free to refugees fleeing the war zone.
However, when asked today whether there was anything extra Ryanair would do to help refugees travel across the continent, Mr O’Leary said: ‘We are already carrying thousands of refugees around Europe.’
It comes as the latest figures show more than three million people have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its assault last month, with the UN estimating there to be at least 1.9 million civilians internally displaced within the eastern European country.
The majority of those fortunate enough to make it out are heading to Poland, but hundreds of thousands have also poured into Moldova, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary.
On Wednesday, Russian forces started shelling the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, where thousands of refugees are sheltering after fleeing Mariupol – where 500 hostages are being held in a hospital as human shields.
The bombardment came hours after an estimated 20,000 civilians arrived in Zaporizhzhia, the first port of call for those fleeing Mariupol along a humanitarian corridor – supposedly safe passages which allow civilians to leave Ukraine.
Putin’s troops launched rocket strikes on the city overnight, hitting a railway station, though there were no reports of casualties, the regional governor Oleksander Vasylyovych said in an announcement on Facebook.
Russian forces in Mariupol have rounded up 400 people from houses neighbouring the city’s hospital number two, along with 100 doctors and patients who were already inside, and are refusing to let them leave, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Aid agencies have warned Mariupol is facing a humanitarian catastrophe, since heavy bombardment has left some 400,000 inhabitants with no running water or heating, and food running short.
And Kyiv was rocked overnight by new explosions which wounded at least two people and damaged two residential buildings hours after the city was placed under curfew amid warnings to brace for a 36-hour bombardment at the hands of Russian forces.
Aftermath of Russian shelling of a 12-storey residential building in Svyatoshyn district of Kyiv early on Wednesday, hours after the Ukrainian capital was placed under a 36-hour curfew
Three loud explosions were heard in western parts of the capital just before dawn, partially destroying the top corner of one building, damaging and scorching the other as thick clouds of smoke billowed into the sky.
Battles continue to rage in cities like Mariupol, Kharkhiv and Mykolaiv, as well as in suburban towns just outside Kyiv, nearly three weeks after Putin ordered an all out invasion of its western neighbour.
Taking Mariupol, which is situated 34miles (55km) from Russia’s border, would mark a strategic breakthrough for Putin.
The city lies between territory held by Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region and the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014 and from where it has launched its assault on key southern towns.
Ukraine on Wednesday demanded guarantees that international forces will ‘prevent attacks’ in the future and rejected Russia’s proposal for Kyiv to become ‘neutral’ like Austria or Sweden as peace talks to end the war continued.
Russian forces have started shelling the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia where thousands of refugees (pictured) are sheltering after fleeing Mariupol – where 500 hostages are being held in a hospital as human shields
Zaporizhzhia is the first safe port of call for those fleeing Mariupol (pictured, a baby shelters in a circus building in Zaporizhzhia after fleeing Mariupol) but evacuees now face a new terror after Vladimir Putin’s troops launched rocket strikes on the city overnight on Tuesday, hitting a railway station
‘Ukraine is now in a direct state of war with Russia. As a result, the model can only be “Ukrainian” and only on legally verified security guarantees,’ its top negotiator Mikhailo Podolyak said in comments published by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office.
He called for a legally binding security agreement, signed by international partners, who would ‘not stand aside in the event of an attack on Ukraine, as they do today.’
The Kremlin earlier Wednesday said that a neutral Ukraine along the lines of Sweden or Austria was being discussed at talks with Kyiv to end three weeks of fighting in Ukraine.
‘This is an option that is being discussed now and that can be considered as a compromise,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
His comments came after Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said neutrality was taking centre stage at the talks and that Moscow and Kyiv were ‘close to agreeing’ the wording of an agreement on neutrality.
Zelensky, speaking in his early morning address on Wednesday, had said that peace talks with Russia were sounding ‘more realistic’ and that a deal could be struck with Putin within one or two weeks because Moscow’s forces will run out of fresh troops and supplies by then.
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