Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has sparked a war of words after he and his airline criticised the Polish government’s “crazy” plans to spend billions on building a large new hub airport.
The row began after an interview with Polish news website Onet, published on Wednesday, in which the outspoken O’Leary described the proposed Solidarity Transport Hub (CPK) as a “stupid project”. He said Poland would be better off investing the money in improving existing airports.
CPK is one of the government’s flagship projects. It will feature a new airport, located between Warsaw and Łódź, that is expected to initially serve 45 million passengers a year, which would put it in a similar (pre-pandemic) league to London Gatwick. The hub will also feature railway interchanges and road connections.
In response to O’Leary’s criticism, CPK issued a statement saying that the project is “a well-thought-out investment, profitable for the Polish economy, and not necessarily for the Irish carrier”. It argued that, while Ryanair uses smaller point-to-point airports, the interests of Poland and its flag carrier LOT lie in creating a bigger single hub.
That in turn prompted a further statement from Ryanair, which accused Poland of “wasting 30 billion zloty (€6.5 billion) on a sandcastle in the middle of nowhere”. It likened the project to “investing in Bitcoin or another equally useless Ponzi scheme”.
CPK’s CEO then took to Twitter to launch an attack on the Irish airline. “Unlike Ryanair, CPK has never received any illegal public aid,” wrote Mikołaj Wild. “Instead of giving up on CPK, Polish taxpayers should save [money] by stopping subsidising Ryanair flights from regional airports.”
Na złodzieju czapka gore. @STH_Poland w odróżnieniu od Ryanair nie uzyskał nigdy nielegalnej pomocy publicznej. Zamiast rezygnacji z #CPK polscy podatnicy powinni zaoszczędzić, rezygnując z dotowania lotów Ryanair z portów regionalnych. https://t.co/2mSg7swB4q
— Mikołaj Wild (@MikolajWild) September 24, 2021
Ryanair’s official Twitter account then replied to Wild, in Polish, saying that “Ryanair has not received a zloty from the Polish government while CPK wastes billions”. It suggested that the money could be better “spent on Polish schools, hospitals, teachers and nurses”.
The airline’s claims not to be subsidised by Polish taxpayers were then questioned by a spokesman for Poland’s ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.
“Taxpayers from Mazovia [Province], financing [Warsaw] Modlin airport, from where Ryanair flies, may have a slightly different opinion on this subject,” wrote Radosław Fogiel.
Podatnicy z Mazowsza, finansujący lotnisko w Modlinie, skąd lata Ryanair, mogą mieć na ten temat nieco inne zdanie. https://t.co/yXhDOFoHL7
— Radosław Fogiel (@radekfogiel) September 25, 2021
Before the pandemic, Ryanair was Poland’s biggest airline in terms of passenger numbers, carrying 13.2 million people in 2019. It has long been critical of the government’s planned mega-airport, which O’Leary in 2018 called “a stupid plan” that would create a “big new shiny cathedral in the middle of nowhere”.
The Polish government, however, believes that CPK can become an important regional hub. It aims for capacity to eventually reach 100 million passengers a year, which on 2019 figures would have made it the second busiest airport in the world alongside Beijing and behind only Atlanta.
The project is support by LOT, whose CEO, Rafał Milczarski, has called it “the biggest undertaking in the modern history of Poland” and a “gateway from the EU to the east”.
Main image credit: Adam Stepien / Agencja Gazeta
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
