Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary’s latest cost cutting scheme is to create ‘standing room-only’ sections on flights.
He claims seatbelts on aircraft are pointless and will not save passengers in a crash.
O’Leary is seeking to create standing only cabins for students and budget travellers, selling £1 tickets to European destinations.
He has suggested removing the back ten rows of seats in aircrafts, allowing groups of less discerning travellers to commute to their destination on their feet.
When it came to landing, he suggested, passengers could “hang on to the handle” and would be “fine”.
“If you say to passengers it’s £25 for the seat and £1 for the standing cabin, I guarantee we will sell the standing cabin first. No question,” O’Leary was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph.
“If there ever was a crash on an aircraft, God forbid, a seatbelt won’t save you. Seatbelts don’t matter.
“You don’t need a seatbelt on the London Underground. You don’t need a seatbelt on trains which are travelling at 120mph and if they crash you’re all dead.”
He added: “You should be able to choose from a safety perspective.
“We’re not talking about areas of huge turbulence around Europe.
“We don’t have heavy landings anymore. If you say to someone,’ look, hang onto the handle there, you’re coming in to land’, they’ll be fine.
“We operate 1,500 flights a day. They don’t come skidding in. This is a very routine, safe form of travel. “