Right. Looking like a few cheap props.
Why have I not got the internet full connection? Sh.
Okay. Mhm. Sorry, I understand. If you want to see you mercy.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. 9:00. So, let's start off with another on-time Ryanair departure. We gathered here this morning as we next weekend launch into our schedule at Zaventem and Charleroi airport. We're also preparing for the De Wever government to increase the aviation tax in Belgium from €2 in 2025 to €7 in 2027, a 250% increase in aviation taxes in Belgium.
This increase in taxes in Belgium comes at a time when most other European countries — Sweden, Slovakia, Hungary, Albania, regional Italy, Ireland — have abolished aviation taxes. And the inevitable consequence is we're taking aircraft out of Charleroi. We're closing routes in Charleroi and in Zaventem, and we're reducing our traffic in Belgium in response to this mad increase in aviation taxes. As a result of that, this next year there will be 1.1 million fewer seats in Belgium, 1.1 million fewer passengers coming to Zaventem and to Charleroi, and those aircraft, those routes and those passengers have been reallocated to Italy, to Slovakia and to Sweden, where the governments are abolishing taxes.
This is a regrettable but inevitable consequence of failed policies by the De Wever government. You cannot grow Belgium, you cannot grow air travel in Belgium by taxing it. Aircraft are mobile assets and they will move to those countries like Sweden, the home of flight shaming and Greta Thunberg, who have worked out that taxing aviation was a dumb, failed idea, and they're now abolishing their aviation taxes and being rewarded with rapid growth.
So we'll run you through briefly the usual thing of Ryanair. So we're Europe's largest lowest-cost airline. We have lower fares, lower costs than any other European airline. We're the number two airline in the world this year, 214 million passengers. We have grown 43% since COVID, where countries who are taxing air travel like France, Belgium, Germany and Holland have seen traffic decline. They've failed to recover their pre-COVID traffic. We're number one for coverage and choice, number one for on-time departures. And we expect to take delivery of 300 Max 10 aircraft over the next decade, which will allow Ryanair to grow from 200 to 300 million passengers per annum.
We're the world's number two airline, by far and away the biggest European airline. We're number two in the world. This year we've overtaken Delta and United, and within the next four years we'll overtake American as well. No, go back. We're twice the size of Lufthansa, IAG, Air France-KLM and Iberia.
Now why are we so big? Because we have so much more low-fare availability, and what citizens and consumers in Europe want is lower fares. They don't want aviation taxes. They don't want any environmental taxes. They want lower fares. And that's why Europe, one of the few industries where Europe is more competitive than North America, is aviation.
The US beats us in AI, beats us in IT, beats us in capital markets, beats us in almost every other industry. The Chinese beat us in manufacturing electric cars. In Europe, we have the lowest airfares of any economic bloc anywhere in the world. And yet, what does Europe do to low fares? Let's increase environmental taxes, but only on European citizens. We exempt the Americans, the Chinese, and the Asians. This is not the way forward. What Europe's citizens want are lower fares. That's what Ryanair gives them, which is why Ryanair keeps growing.
This year we'll operate from 95 bases, 222 airports. We will grow from 196 million passengers last year to 214 million passengers this year. Why? Because we have much lower costs. Next slide. We have much lower costs than any other airline in Europe. Our cost per seat is €36 compared to Wizz at 65, easyJet at 90. And you look at Lufthansa, Air France at €180 per seat.
If Europe wants to have low fares going forward, you need more Ryanair growth, which thankfully we will be able to deliver. But we also need to stop taxing European aviation, or at least have a level playing field for environmental taxes that taxes the Americans, the Chinese and the Asians on a fair and reasonable basis rather than exempting them as we currently do.
In terms of current developments, so we have strong post-COVID recovery. I said our traffic is up 43% pre-COVID. We carried 148 million passengers this year. That will grow to 214 million. We have 300 Boeing 737 Max 10s on order. We expect Boeing to approve or the FAA to certify the Max 10 hopefully this week. If not this week, maybe next week, but we expect the Max 10 to be certified during the month of October. Our first delivery is due in January of next year. We'll be the first operator of the Max 10 here in Europe.
And what is happening though, we are switching our scarce capacity to those states and airports who are reducing taxes, incentivizing growth, i.e. Slovakia, Italy, Sweden, Hungary, but away from those countries who are raising aviation taxes like the dumb De Wever government here in Belgium. You know, Belgium and Ryanair is the largest airline in Belgium. But if Belgium wants to tax aviation, then we're going to take our aircraft and move them somewhere else where they're not taxing aviation. As a result of which, Belgium will be the loser.
We continue to ask the question here in Brussels: why has nothing been done about the Draghi Report? We see riots in the streets in many European countries. People are unhappy about cost of living, about the lack of competitiveness of Europe. Meanwhile, useless von der Leyen hides in the Berlaymont building doing absolutely nothing about competitiveness — except, well, sorry, she gives speeches about competitiveness, but that's about it and does nothing else.
The Draghi report gave Europe a roadmap on how to deliver on competitiveness two years ago, and yet it has just gathered dust for the last two years. Nothing has been done. The failing De Wever government responds in Belgium by raising taxes on aviation, a 250% increase in tax from €2 to €7 a ticket. A family of four would now have to pay €28 in additional taxes just for the privilege of flying from Belgium. I think many will drive to Holland or to France and get cheaper airfares there rather than flying from Belgium.
As a result of that, and solely because of that tax increase, Zaventem and Charleroi will lose 1.1 million seats this winter. Six aircraft have been moved from Charleroi — two to Italy, two to Sweden, two to Slovakia — and 200 jobs, pilots and cabin crew jobs, have been lost. And there'll be another million seats cut in summer '27 if the De Wever government doesn't abolish those taxes.
Europe fails to deliver competitiveness. Here we have useless von der Leyen talks about competitiveness but does absolutely nothing about it. So scrap aviation taxes. It makes no sense to tax aviation because it is a mobile asset. If you tax it in one location, the aircraft moves somewhere else to avoid the taxes. Stop penalizing European citizens.
We only apply ETS environmental taxes to intra-EU flights, you know, and yet despite the fact that the long-haul flights from America, Asia and the Chinese account for 53% of European aviation CO2 emissions. So the people who create the most emissions are completely exempt from their fair share of environmental taxes. Only the Europeans would design a system as dumb and stupid as this. The Americans, the Asians, and the Chinese are laughing at us.
And yet what do we get this year? A proposal to further raise environmental taxes on European aviation. Stop raising tax on European aviation. If you're not going to tax the Americans when they want to land and take off in Europe, then we should reduce ETS towards CORSIA levels, which is what the Americans, the Asians, the Chinese have agreed to pay. That would dramatically lower airfares for European citizen families travelling within the EU.
Fix Europe's failed ATC system. 90% of flight delays in Europe are caused by air traffic control. Yet the airlines have to pay the costs. We have to pay the right to care, we have to pay compensation, but we're not allowed to recover that from the people who caused the delays, which is the air traffic control providers.
Again, the European Airlines A4E has two simple reforms. One, mandate or oblige the air traffic controllers to have standby air traffic controllers for the first wave of morning flights. They don't. And when on a Saturday and a Sunday in the summer they say there's air traffic capacity restrictions, it just means that Pierre or Frank haven't showed up to work. They should have standby air traffic control in the same way that the airlines have standby pilots and standby cabin crew.
And secondly, protect flight overflights during national ATC strikes, i.e. French strikes. The French go on strike. They use minimum service legislation to protect a lot of the local French flights, but they cancel all the overflights. So the flights going from Belgium to Spain, from Ireland to Italy, from the UK to Portugal, all get cancelled while the French look after themselves. Again, if this is a single market for air travel, we should protect those overflights. We don't need French ATC to overfly France. And yet we allow the French to just shut the skies over Europe whenever they have one of their recreational strikes.
Reform the OC regulations. We have this interesting case coming up in Dublin in December where Air France-KLM, who within A4E agree that OC rules should be reformed, and yet they've set up a new organization called the ENAA, which has only got two members, Air France and Lufthansa, under which they are lobbying to keep the existing ownership and control rules the same.
We have said if that case goes ahead in Dublin, we're leaving A4E, which will result in the collapse of A4E because you won't have Europe's largest airline in it. Europe, following the Sabena case in 2015, the European Union produced guidelines. We comply fully with the 50% EU ownership and control because if any non-Europeans own shares, we deprive them of any voting rights. They don't have any shareholder rights, and therefore the equity control of Ryanair is 100% European owned.
Cut ETS to CORSIA levels, which at least, if you're not going to tax the Americans, the Asians and the Chinese, then at least reduce the taxes that European citizens are paying to what the Americans, Chinese and Asians are agreeing to pay, which is CORSIA. And you have this kind of ludicrous scam at the moment in Europe. Next slide.
Under ETS, for example, so a family of four from Belgium travelling to the Canaries pays €120 in ETS taxation. Absolutely bonkers. Yet if they go next door to Morocco, zero, because Morocco is outside the EU. Again, they go to southern Italy, €80 of ETS. They go to neighbouring Albania, zero. And if you want to go to Greece, it's €80, the Greek islands, but you go next door to Turkey, zero.
Europe's response to this? Let's increase — we'll now apply ETS to all flights within 5,000 kilometers from... where's the centre of Europe? Frankfurt, because if you move it to Frankfurt you just catch the Gulf carriers but you don't catch New York. So I said no again. What's Europe's response here? Not to reduce or abolish ETS altogether in Europe for the benefit of European citizens. It's let's see if we can extend the taxation to somebody else without upsetting the Americans. As always, Europe taxes and reduces competitiveness while trying not to offend the Americans.
Belgium for this winter. So we will have 13 aircraft based here in Belgium with €1.3 billion investment. That's down from 20 aircraft. 76 routes, 10 million passengers down from 11 million. We are supporting about 8,000 jobs here in Belgium. And what does the government do? Increases aviation tax by 250% from €2 to €7 starting in March '27. And Belgium is increasing aviation tax at a time when Slovakia, Sweden, Hungary, Italy are scrapping aviation taxes and are being rewarded with dramatic growth.
Our response to this: we're going to cut six aircraft, 20 routes lost, 1.1 million seats in winter of 2026. So in Charleroi this winter, we have 13 based aircraft, a reduction of six. It's an investment of €1.3 billion, but a reduction of €600 million, 76 routes, 13 routes closed, we're losing 200 jobs, and there's 1 million less seats. And what happens for the remaining seats? There's going to be higher airfares.
Congratulations, Prime Minister De Wever. Another brilliant initiative that will do nothing except damage the competitiveness of Belgian aviation. In Zaventem this winter, we're only going to maintain one route, which is the route to Dublin. We're closing seven other routes. We're going to reduce from 300,000 seats to 100,000 seats. 300,000 seats lost.
Airport charges in Zaventem have gone up 25% post-COVID despite the fact that Zaventem isn't growing. We closed our two-aircraft base in Zaventem in 2022. Only one route this winter, and again De Wever responds to this by increasing aviation taxes. It would be hard to find a more stupid or more failed political initiative than De Wever increasing taxes.
You don't need to be a genius. You just have to look at what happened in Germany, France and Holland post-COVID where they raised taxes and air travel again fell. And De Wever, instead of following the successful model of Italy, Slovakia or Sweden, decides he'll follow the failed policies of the Germans and the French.
We have an alternative. We've already submitted a growth plan, a seven-year growth plan, to the De Wever government. We said by 2032 Ryanair would grow traffic 50% to 16 million passengers from 11 million. We would base 17 new Boeing 737 aircraft here in Zaventem and in Charleroi. We would reopen the Zaventem base and regrow traffic at Charleroi. We would add 100 new routes here in Belgium and create a thousand more Ryanair jobs in Belgium.
And all we have to do is abolish the €2 aviation tax, lower Zaventem charges that have gone up by 25% post-COVID, and scrap the restrictive curfew with Zaventem. And what did we get by way of response? An increase in the taxes. Congratulations to De Wever. Yet another failed politician following a failed tax-increasing policy.
So in summary, Ryanair is the world's number two airline. We have the lowest fares, the most choice, and we're growing rapidly across Europe. Failing De Wever increases aviation taxes by 250% in Belgium in 2027. As a result of which Belgium is losing six aircraft, 20 routes, 1.1 million seats. Those seats are switching to Sweden, Hungary, Albania, Italy, who are scrapping aviation taxes and are enjoying rapid growth.
We do have an alternative plan for Belgium, which is to grow from 10 to 16 million passengers, but only if Belgium abolishes the stupid €7 aviation tax. We continue to call on useless von der Leyen to deliver competitiveness here in Europe, implement the Draghi plan. Nothing has been done for two years.
Ursula von der Leyen, when she occasionally comes out with Verheugen, gives speeches about being competitive but does absolutely nothing about it. Competitive aviation would result in much more rapid growth within Europe. Europe needs growth. If we're going to satisfy the needs of our citizens, we've got to grow our economies. The fastest way to deliver growth is to encourage aviation growth. Aviation brings tourism. Tourism accounts for 12% of Europe's GDP.
And yet, what are we doing here? The morons in Brussels and in the European Parliament want to increase taxes on European aviation, damage growth, which is why so many of our citizens are so unhappy with the political leadership we have in Europe.
There is a seat sale today, but the seat sale is one of the highest seat sales we've ever launched in Brussels. We used to have seat sales of €9.99, €14.99, €19.99. Now with fewer flights in Belgium, the seat sales are €30. Congratulations, Prime Minister De Wever. You're another political failure here in Belgium. Abolish the taxes and return to growth. And if you've got any questions...
