CNN Host berates Ryanair chief for 'no flights after Brexit'

Richard Quest ripped into Kenny Jacobs over Ryanair's Brexit claim

A RYANAIR chief has been lambasted by a TV host after claiming flights between the UK and the EU could come to a halt after Brexit.
Kenny Jacobs, the airline’s chief marketing officer, called on the UK Government for clarity on open skies, which governs flying between the Britain and Europe, or risk grounding flights after the EU divorce.


But he was soon blasted by CNN’s Richard Quest for his comments on open skies, which falls under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which the UK has indicated it will leave.
Mr Jacobs said: “If we don’t have absolute clarity come August of next year in terms of what’s the alternative going to be to continue open skies then we’re in unknown territory – we want to continue flying between the UK and Europe as we do today.”
The host then ripped into his guest and rubbished the idea flights would stop between the bloc and the UK.


He said: “Right but Kenny you know as well as I do that flying from the UK to another European country and back again is really very simple.
“I mean in the industry parlance, that’s just third and fourth freedoms and countries have those all the time, it’s the more complicated stuff of intra-European flying when you’re using the UK fleet – that’s the problem.”
Mr Jacobs insisted there had to be a “brand new bilateral” to allow flights to continue.
He replied: “Yes but flying between the UK and Europe is governed by the European Court of Justice as part of open skies.


“The UK Government has decided they’re leaving Europe and they’re leaving the European Court of Justice and Theresa May has been absolutely clear the UK is leaving the European Court of Justice.


When they do that there needs to be a brand new bilateral in place.”
He said there could be no flying for a “number of months”.
Mr Jacobs said: “If we can’t fly for a period of time, again I would say we don’t want this to happen, but we can see a situation where there could be no flying between the UK and Europe for a number of months.”


Quest then fired back and suggested Ryanair’s stance was mere “hyperbally”.
“Now come on Kenny, how much of this is hyperbally?” he asked. “How much of this is you raising the temperature in a situation where nobody realistically thinks any routes will be cancelled.”