Italian aviation authority threatens Ryanair with flight suspension for non-compliance with Covid-19 rules

On Wednesday, the Italian National Civil Aviation Authority ENAC threatened the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair to suspend its authorisation to fly in the country, due to the failure to comply with the safety rules imposed in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

ENAC had written to Ryanair and “at the same time informed the competent Irish authority of the repeated violations of the anti-Covid-19 health regulations currently in force and imposed by the Italian government to protect the health of passengers,” the authority said.

“Not only is the obligation of distance between passengers not respected, but the conditions for derogating from this distance are also ignored“, says ENAC, which warned that if “a further failure to comply with the obligations laid down in the national rules is established,” Enac stressed, “it will be obliged to apply the provisions of the navigation code (Article 802 – prohibition of departure) and to impose the suspension of all air transport activities at national airports, requiring the carrier to re-route all passengers already in possession of tickets.”

The airline reacted by saying that “the assertions in the ENAC press release released today are incorrect. Ryanair is fully complying with the measures decreed by the Italian government. We are doing everything to reduce interactions both on our planes and at airports in order to protect their health“.