Ryanair says European short-haul fares could'increase materially' next year. Ryanair says European short-haul fares could'increase materially' next year. Ryanair is considering cost-cutting measures including pay freezes, reducing crew numbers on flights and increasing the use of AI to offset soaring fuel costs driven by the Middle East conflict . Europe's largest low-cost carrier said it expected European airlines to raise ticket prices by up to 20%, with its own jet fuel costs forecast to rise by about €2bn (£1.6bn) in its next financial year, which ends in March 2028. "Unless there is a swift resolution of the Middle East conflict we expect jet fuel prices to remain elevated well into 2027," said Michael O'Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair .

Ryanair may freeze workers' pay and raise fares on higher fuel prices Ryanair is considering a temporary wage freeze for staff to pay for a sharp rise in its fuel costs which have surged following the US-Israel war with Iran. The carrier said it expects fuel prices to remain high well into 2027 unless there is a swift resolution to the conflict. Ryanair said its fuel bill is forecast to be €2bn (£1.6bn) higher in the short-term and said it expects European airfares to increase to help cover the cost. But it said that was unlikely to be enough and, among a number of measures, it is looking into temporary pay freezes. The BBC has contacted Unite, the union which represents Ryanair employees, for comment.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary has refused to apologise to a rape crisis centre which criticised him for describing rival airlines as high-fare rapists. Speaking to journalists, O'Leary said some people were desperate to get to Ryanair's low fares because they can't afford to fly with the high-fare rapists around Europe. O'Leary doubled-down on his choice of words when asked about them at the time, and later refused to apologise when the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) wrote to him asking for apology, in a letter seen by the BBC. Ireland's deputy premier Simon Harris said it was clearly an inappropriate use of language and that O'Leary should have moved to rectify it. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told UK radio outlet LBC that victims of rape are not going to be rushing to book tickets with him, let's be honest.

Ryanair broken window may have been caused by'foreign object' To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. An incident on a Ryanair flight which saw a passenger partially sucked out of a plane window may have been caused by foreign object damage to an engine, said the airline's boss. Michael O'Leary said an initial investigation into the incident on 10 July between Greece and Germany suggests it looks like a foreign object damage to the engine on takeoff at Thessaloniki but ... we can't say that definitively. He insisted that the engine on the 18-year-old Boeing 737 plane had been fully serviced and overhauled in the past two years. Serbian national Ljubisa Karović's head and right shoulder were sucked out of the plane's window, leaving him seriously injured and in shock.

Elon Musk has suggested he could buy Ryanair and called for its chief executive to be fired amid a deepening spat between the pair. The budget airline on Tuesday branded the Tesla chief executive an idiot, and used the extraordinary row to promote its January sale. Musk and Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary have been trading insults over the past week after O'Leary rejected the idea of using Musk's Starlink technology to provide wi-fi on flights. The two are among the world's most outspoken business chiefs, with Musk the world's richest man with an estimated net worth of $769bn (£573bn), and O'Leary running Europe's busiest airline. A statement on Ryanair's X account on Tuesday evening said: Perhaps Musk needs a break?? Ryanair is launching a Great Idiots seat sale especially for Elon and any other idiots on'X'.

Some cafes put dressed mannequins in poses as if they were buying products or sipping coffee at counters in their empty businesses. In towns from north to south, many small business owners on Friday stood at a safe distance from each other on the sidewalk or in town squares, their shuttered stores or restaurants behind them, wearing black masks and holding placards highlighting their economic troubles. On Monday, restaurants and cafes can start offering takeout. Non-essential shops can reopen on May 18 if Italy's rate of contagion with COVID-19 doesn't sharply rise again.

In the contemporary world, artificial intelligence is amongst our grasp. An intelligence that can process more information at speeds that weren't previously conceivable. It is not that the idea behind AI is a new one. While AI has been around since centuries, it has never had the scope of application that it does today. For instance, consider a scenario where we can ask the Google Assistant to find restaurants near me.