"The vaccines are coming, people are going on holidays again"
Ryanair chief executive Micheal O'Leary has claimed that all travel restrictions will be removed for short-haul flights by the summer.
O'Leary appeared on Good Morning Britain this morning to give customers an update on Ryanair's intentions for the summer months.
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He said: "It would be certainly foolhardy to be booking in April and May. But certainly with the school holidays coming round in June, July and August and the successful the rollout of the vaccines, led by the UK, Europe will catch up dramatically I believe in the months of April and May, particularly with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine rollout."
Speaking remotely, he told GMB hosts: "I think you're going to see the removal of all restrictions on short-haul flights between the UK and Spain, the UK and Portugal, and the UK and Greece."
O'Leary said that Ryanair announced 26 new routes last week which are set to be launched later this summer. The new routes will enable people in the UK to travel to destinations including Corfu, Santorini and Ibiza.
He said: "The vaccines are coming, people are going on holidays again."
In response, co-host Susanna Reid stressed to O'Leary that France may be going on the Government's 'red list'.
She said: "I think it would be completely wrong to consider going on holiday to France at the moment," to which the Ryanair boss responded: "Yes, but we're at the end of March. By the time you get to June, we believe there will be a decline in case rates and the success of the vaccine rollout, which most of EU countries hope to catch up by June."
O'Leary added that he thinks there will be no "hotel quarantine" during the months of June to September.
He allayed customers' concerns by claiming: "If there are delays or disruptions, you can change those bookings free of charge."
He added that customers were "not taking any risks".
This comes after the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick warned people not to book summer holidays on GMB this morning.
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"We may be making huge progress ourselves as a country, largely because of the vaccine programme", he said. "But of course there are other countries in the world which are sadly further behind us in that regard."
While international travel may not be possible, Jenrick said: "I think we can expect to be going on domestic holidays later in the summer."
