Ryanair bets big on European recovery for budget flights

Quantum Commodity Intelligence - Ryanair, Europe's biggest budget airline, is making a big push for market share with plans to recruit 2,000 pilots over the next three years.

The airline needs pilots to fly the 210 Boeing 737 Max jets it has on order that started arriving last month. 

The Irish carrier has been the quickest out of the blocks this summer to become Europe's busiest airline.

On July 7, Ryanair flew 1,655 flights, up 23% from two weeks earlier, and far more than its nearest rivals, data from Eurocontrol shows.

On the same day, Turkish Airlines flew 1,114 flights, Air France flew 804 flights, Lufthansa flew 682 flights, KLM flew 637 flights and easyJet flew 628 flights.

Ryanair will start training new recruits this year and aims to have crews ready for the summer 2022 season.

While European countries began opening for travel this month, the UK will lift mandatory quarantines for vaccinated Brits returning from holiday from countries on the "amber" list from July 19.

European flight numbers were still around a third lower last week than the same period in 2019, and the market is not expected to make a full recovery to pre-pandemic levels until 2024, according to analysts.