Ryanair is continuing to reject the UK's quarantine plans. The LCC's renewed renunciation of the UK's policy comes as the airline today revealed that its passenger count had dropped 99.5% in May.

The United Kingdom's planned two-week quarantine has gone down like a cup of cold sick with most airlines. Carriers with a big operation in the UK have been particularly vocal, as they stand to be affected most by the new policy. Today, Ryanair again denounced the 'ineffective, completely useless' plan being put into place by the UK Government.

Why Ryanair is against the quarantine

Ryanair has arguably been the most vocal of all the airlines regarding the UK's planned quarantine. The Irish low-cost carrier is planning to rapidly re-implement flights following a few months of its current skeleton service. However, the quarantine that it has described as 'too little too late' could throw a spanner in their plans.

The airline has today published several arguments against the quarantine plan. Firstly, passengers arriving at airports are free to use public transport to get to their quarantine location. Ryanair points out that as these passengers aren't 'detained,' they can spread coronavirus before reaching their designated quarantine.

Ryanair, Passenger Numbers, UK Quarantine
Stansted is the main base for European LCC Ryanair. Photo: Stansted Airport

The Irish LCC has also blasted the quarantine for being unenforceable, stating that only 1% of people will be checked. They add that calls to mobile phones will be the only checks conducted. These "can be answered from any golf course, beach, park, or indeed supermarket across the UK."

Ryanair closed by saying that Brits will "will largely ignore" the quarantine as it "cannot be implemented, cannot be policed and has no scientific basis."

Ryanair hasn't had many passengers

In the two months that is has been grounded without being constrained by the UK's quarantine, Ryanair has seen its passenger number drop significantly. This isn't a huge surprise. The airline typically operates thousands of flights a day. However, since it largely suspended its operations, the carrier has been running around 20 routes.

Of course, if it is operating fewer flights, the airline will have fewer passengers. The airline operated just 701 flights. This gives an average of 23 trips per day. Across these flights, the airline carried only 70,000 passengers during the month, around 100 passengers per flight. The Simple Flying team accounted for one of those 70,000 passengers.

Ryanair CO2
Ryanair has seen passenger numbers drop 99.5%. Photo: Tom Boon - Simple Flying

In total, the Ryanair Group's passenger count dropped by 99.5% from the 14.1 million passengers it carried last May. However, Lauda's traffic fell by 100% as its operations are currently entirely suspended. Ryanair last month announced plans to close Lauda's Vienna base.

While it could profoundly impact UK travelers, a UK quarantine wouldn't affect many of Ryanair's intra-EU flights as many countries drop their quarantines and travel bans. As such, despite the UK quarantine, Ryanair's passenger numbers should start to rise from the 1st of July when the airline begins to relaunch services.

What are your thoughts on the UK's 2-week quarantine? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!