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24th May 2021
02:26pm BST

O’Leary said that Irish people have been “ignoring the Government” and booking flights in June, as a number of passengers had already placed bookings with the airline for popular holiday destinations like Spain.
He added that the Government “keep deferring” to the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), saying he would like to see them act in the best interest of all groups. The Ryanair chief also said that Ireland's mandatory hotel quarantine system is “completely useless,” as variants such as the Indian and British strain had still entered the country. The airline CEO also spoke about an incident that occurred on Sunday, where a journalist was removed by authorities on a Ryanair plane in Belarus, The plane was flying from Greece to Lithuania, escorted by a Belarusian fighter jet. However, the flight was forced to divert from Minsk, where an opposition blogger, Roman Protasevich, was arrested. O'Leary described the incident as a "state-sponsored hijack", adding that the event is currently being investigated by the relevant authorities. “We’re debriefing our crew, who did a phenomenal job to get that aircraft and almost all the passengers out of Minsk after six hours," he said. O'Leary said that the incident was "very frightening" for passengers and crew, as they were held under armed guard and had their bags searched. "It appears the intent of the authorities was to remove a journalist and his travelling companion… we believe there were some KGB agents offloaded at the airport as well," he continued.Explore more on these topics:

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