Ryanair Holdings PLC (LSE:RYA) boss Michael O’Leary has tipped rivals British Airways and Air France as possible bidders for easyJet as he predicted a wave of consolidation in the airline business.
Speaking at a press conference in London, O’Leary said that Covid had accelerated the consolidation process in the airline sector with Luton-based easyJet “going to finish up being bought by either British Airways or Air France, or both jointly.”
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Share prices in the airline sector have raced away in the first few weeks of 2023 on hopes of a return to pre-pandemic levels of travel and O’Leary revealed the Irish carrier had just smashed its weekend bookings record.
Ryanair saw 2.03mln flight bookings over the weekend compared with the previous record of 1.6mln in early 2019 during a massive cut-price sale.
“People are getting in early and booking their Easter and summer travel,” he said. “There just seems to be very strong demand out there."
"People are worrying that prices are going to rise in the summer – which I think they will," O’Leary added, saying he expects average fares to rise by “the high single digits” year-on-year.
Shares in Ryanair were flat at €13.14, British Airways owner IAG was down by 1% at 157.4p, and easyJet was off 1.1% at 437p in Tuesday late afternoon trading.