O'Leary 'not serious' about buying Stansted for €2bn
RYANAIR chief executive Michael O'Leary last night said he was "not serious" about widely-reported plans to mount a £2bn bid for London's Stansted Airport.
Yesterday's Daily Telegraph quoted Mr O'Leary as saying Ryanair would "be in like a bandit" if the airport came onto the market. The outspoken executive was also quoted as saying that buying Stansted was one of his two outstanding Ryanair ambitions, along with buying Aer Lingus.
He mooted a price of £2bn for the airport and spoke about plans to increase its passenger numbers from 24 million to 40 million. The comments were widely interpreted as serious and prompted shares at Stansted-owner Ferrovial to rise by as much as 7pc in morning trading yesterday, despite the Spanish owner's insistence the airport is not for sale.
Mr O'Leary's apparent interest in Stansted, however, sat uncomfortably with his long-held insistence that Ryanair should never diversify from running a low-cost airline.
As recently as July 16, he told a Dail Transport Committee that his airline would never buy Cork Airport because "were Ryanair to get into the business of airport ownership approximately 20 French and 20 Spanish regional airports would be throwing themselves at us tomorrow morning -- our job is to run an airline".
Mr O'Leary last night said his views on airport ownership remained unchanged from the comments made to the committee.
Asked how serious Ryanair was about buying Stansted, Mr O'Leary replied: "We're not".
He also confirmed plans to buy Stansted had not been discussed at either senior executive level or board level within Ryanair. The news will be welcome by Ryanair's investors, with market sources yesterday fretting about the funding drain of Ryanair buying both Aer Lingus and Stansted.
"The one thing Ryanair has always had going for it was a really strong balance sheet, and that's supported the stock," said one. "I don't see how they could raise the money to buy Aer Lingus and Stansted, but if they did they'd be left with a much weaker balance sheet."
- Laura Noonan
