Irish budget airline Ryanair has warned the Italian civil aviation authority that it will pull all of its internal flights before the end of January unless the regulator backtracks on plans to loosen the rules on ID documents.
The carrier, which has become famous throughout Europe for its cheap flights, is angry with the Ente Nazionale per l’Aviazione Civile (ENAC) for issuing a pair of directives which require airlines to allow online check-ins with documents besides passports and official identity cards.
Ryanair complained that the directives would force it to lower its security standards which could as a result place customers at risk. In a statement, the carrier told ENAC that unless the orders were lifted, it would be grounding all Italian domestic cheap flights from 23 January.
Such a move would affect services from Alghero, Bari, Bergamo, Bologna, Brindisi, Cagliari, Pescara, Pisa and Trapani airports.
The ENAC directives were issued at the start of November and, in a statement Ryanair complained that they were presented to airlines “without consultation or discussion.” It also complained that under the provisions of the directives, its employees would be subject to imprisonment if they refused to accept customers “flying with unapproved forms of ID.”
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary apoplogised to domestic fliers in Italy, saying: “We sincerely regret any inconvenience that this measure will cause to our Italian domestic passengers.”
Ryanair is taking a stand against the aviation authority, which might have seemed pedantic until this weekend, when a Nigerian man attempted to blow up a passenger aircraft on an inbound American flight to Detroit. Ryanair said it would not accept passengers who were carrying “nothing more than fishing licences.”
