Ryanair May Pull out of Italy over Regulations Dispute

Ryanair, one of the planet’s largest budget airlines, engaged in a heated argument today with the Italian Civil Aviation authority. The Ente Nazionale per l’Aviazione Civile (ENAC) accused Ryanair, as well as peer airline, easyJet, of ignoring safety standards and endangering their passengers by providing poor standards of service.

The Ryanair dispute with the ENAC increased in tension just after Christmas day when a 23 year old man from Nigeria attempted to ignite explosives aboard a 278 passenger flight bound for Detroit. In the wake of that near tragedy, Ryanair is concerned with ENAC’s two new directives passed back in November, causing the Irish budget airline to inform its passengers that they would discontinue internal services in Italy beginning January 23.

The new directives indicate that airlines must accept a much broader range of picture identification for passengers who have previously check-in online. However, Ryanair has said that the situation is unacceptable as in some cases they were accepting unsafe identifying documents from passengers. Currently Ryanair asks that passengers use either a passport or state-issued ID card for verification.
The low budget airline added that the ENAC officials had instituted the directives without any prior consent or discussion with airlines operating in the country. The airline has also pleaded with its passengers to protest via contacting the ENAC director general.

ENAC’s president released a rebuttal statement saying that the Italian civil aviation authority expected all airlines to comply with its standards or they shall incur penalties under EU sanctioned regulations.

Easyjet spokesperson Andrew McConnell was contacted but said that the budget airline had, as of yet, not had time to review the matter fully and therefore had not taken an official stance on the issue. The airline declined any further comment.