Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary addressed reporters at a press conference in Poland, predicting that tourism flows to the Middle East will suffer as a result of the Iran war.
- The Ryanair chief added that while the airline would be willing to help bring back travelers from the Middle East on its flights, it has a limited number of planes in reserve ahead of the busy summer travel period.
- According to a BBC report citing data from Flightradar24, more than 4,000 flights have been canceled per day since the beginning of the Iran war over the weekend.
- That report added that more than 71% of flights to the United Arab Emirates and 79% of flights to Qatar had been canceled on Monday, while 92% of flights to Bahrain had been grounded.
Ryanair Holdings (RYAAY) CEO Michael O’Leary predicted on Tuesday that the ongoing Iran war will end quickly because the Middle Eastern country cannot sustain its retaliatory strikes in response to attacks from the U.S. and Israel.
According to a Bloomberg report, O’Leary highlighted another reason for his prediction, pointing to President Donald Trump having a “short attention span so he would want it to be over reasonably quickly or he’ll get bored.”
Meanwhile, addressing reporters at the White House on Monday, President Trump shot back at critics, saying he will get bored with the Iran war.
“Somebody said today, the President wants to do it really quickly and after that, he’ll get bored. I don’t get bored. There’s nothing boring about this,” he said.
Ryanair shares were down more than 3% in Tuesday’s pre-market trade. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around the company trended in the ‘neutral’ territory at the time of writing.
Middle East Tourism To Be Hit For About Two Years, Says O’Leary
O’Leary was addressing reporters at a press conference in Poland, predicting that the tourism flows to the Middle East will suffer as a result of the Iran war. However, he expects the governments in the region to lure travelers with discounts.
“The Gulf states will suffer damage to their tourism product,” he said, according to the report.
The Ryanair chief added that while the airline would be willing to help bring back travelers from the Middle East on its flights, it has a limited number of planes in reserve ahead of the busy summer travel period.
Thousands Of Flights Canceled Every Day
According to a BBC report citing data from Flightradar24, more than 4,000 flights have been canceled per day since the beginning of the Iran war over the weekend.
That report added that more than 71% of the flights to the United Arab Emirates and 79% flights to Qatar had been canceled on Monday, while 92% of the flights to Bahrain had been grounded.
Meanwhile, the United States and Israel carried out fresh strikes on Iran on Tuesday, raising fears that the escalating hostilities could spiral into a wider regional conflict across the Middle East.
U.S. equities declined in Tuesday’s pre-market trade. At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was down by 1.41%, the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) fell 1.82%, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) declined 1.44%. Retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF on Stocktwits was in the ‘bearish’ territory.
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