Ryanair boss Micheal O'Leary: 'UK airports need more runways'

Ryanair supremo says politicians can continue to 'f**k' around for another 10 years but expansion is 'inevitable'

Ryanair Chief Executive Officer Michael O'Leary (Getty Images)

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary expects three more runways to be built at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted and says locals should not be able to block plans because they “chose to be a resident under a flight path”.

The airline supremo said it was “inevitable” that politicians would “fix London with three more runways. One at Heathrow, one at Gatwick, and one at Stansted. Boom. It’s going to happen. They’ll f*** around for another 10 years but then the pressure will become so great, each will get another runway.”

Stansted, where Ryanair has a base, will expand first, he believes, followed by Gatwick and Heathrow. “There are very few residents in Stansted. It’s all green fields, so it’s the obvious one. At Heathrow, residents shouldn’t be allowed to block expansion — it’s ridiculous. You chose to be a resident under the flight path.

“The flight path is getting quieter, aircraft have got significantly quieter over the last 10 years. But if you bought a house besides Heathrow, you knew where it was. If you’re not happy, move. All the houses next to the airport have risen in value over the last 10 years. Move!”

It comes three months after O’Leary said he had decided to remove himself from the public eye in a bid to “stop unnecessarily p***ing people off”.

But he now claims airports expansion in the South-East should be taken out of the hands of “gaming” politicians and described the current proposal for Heathrow as “mad”.

He said: “It involves closing and moving the M25 — that makes Boris’s Thames Estuary concept look like a sensible planning idea. Closing and moving the M25? They must be insane.”