Cheap airline Ryanair has problems in Italy for allegedly violating anti-coronavirus regulations established in the country to allow travel. The National Aviation Institution (ENAC) recently warned the airline of its “repeated violations” of the country’s fitness standards, threatening to “suspend all air transport activities at Italian national airports” and asking for “protection for all passengers who already have a ticket”. “
In particular, ENAC points out that Ryanair does not socially distance passengers or satisfy situations which would allow that requirement to be ignored. In fact, if social distance is required on all other means of public transport, Italy has provided the option of not allowing the distance to be edited on aircraft, since the air replacement formula on the aircraft operates every few minutes, and provided that all others are respected sanitary precautions (use of masks, disinfection).
ENAC therefore informed Ryanair that, if the violations continued, it would order that the aircraft area be occupied only up to 50% of its total capacity, and would in all likelihood suspend all of Ryanair’s to Italy.
The airline responded temporarily by stating that it was “scrupulously following all EU needs.” In a note, the airline said: “Ryanair is committed to ensuring the highest degrees of protection for all its passengers and equipment. Ryanair’s Fly Safe measures are in line with the recommendations and needs established through the Italian government, the European Union for Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). These include: all passengers are invited to register online, while the boarding procedure is now in contactless mode, to avoid internal non-essential contact airports. Ryanair has an express boarding procedure in a position to avoid unnecessary meetings at boarding gates and on board the aircraft. Ryanair also strictly restricts luggage, to avoid the threat of encountering it when placed in overhead containers. Ryanair offers a lower onboard service and only accepts contactless bills to further reduce interactions. Upon arrival, our team informs passengers about the procedures to ensure that there are no unnecessary meetings during disembarkation.”
In addition, “all passengers and the Ryanair team must wear face masks. All of our aircraft are supplied with complex HEPA filters that remove suspended debris in the same way as in-flight hospital filters. The statements contained in ENAC’s press release are therefore incorrect. Ryanair fully complies with the measures taken by the Italian government and our consumers can be sure that we are doing everything possible to reduce human interactions at and out of the airport and protect their fitness when flying with Ryanair,” the airline said.
Although there is lately no official update on ENAC’s warning, eyewitnesses hint that the airline is not complying with protection standards. An Italian passenger flying in the direction of Tel Aviv-Rome with Ryanair said that “the plane was partially empty, but we were still placed side by side, without any distance, and when we complained, a butler said: the stage is like when you leave.” Coming from Israel, where coronavirus cases are on the rise, the passenger expressed fear that “everything was left to self-management, no one cared to keep other people away from each other.”
Italy is also facing an increase in infections (259 new cases yesterday) and a series of outbreaks across the country. Since the onset of the pandemic, Italy has recorded 250,825 cases, while lately 13,368 have shown inflamed cases.
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