Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has launched an extraordinary attack on the government over what he described as a 'laughable' 14-day quarantine plan for flights into the UK.
It comes as the company reported profits were up 13 per cent to £890m as it warned of a difficult year ahead, with flights resuming in July amid 3,000 job losses due to a slump in demand as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The discount airline said it saw an increase in passengers for the full year but has so far operated less than 1 per cent of its scheduled flights since the start of April.
It also told investors that it has sufficient funds to 'weather COVID-19 and emerge stronger when the crisis passes'.
In an interview with the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme, Ryanair chief executive Mr O'Leary said: "It's laughable that this government can come up with any plans for a quarantine that will be strict and fully enforced when they are already exempting the Irish and French and NHS workers.
"That's currently the policy.
"It's idiotic and its unimplementable you don't have enough police in the UK to implement a two-week lockdown (quarantine).
"It has no medical or scientific basis in any event."
He said 'if you really want to do something, wear masks'.
He described the post-flight quarantine as 'ineffective and unmanageable', but added: "If everybody is wearing masks you eliminate the risk of the spread of COVID-19 by about 98.5 per cent."
Mr O'Leary pointed out that the Italians have removed the 14-day flight quarantine restriction from June 3 and is opening up its economy and welcoming business. He expressed hope this would also happen in other European countries, including the UK.
He said the quarantine policy has 'no credibility', adding he believes it will be 'gradually be eliminated anyway' by the government.
Asked if he was effectively encouraging people to break the law, he replied: "I don't think so."
He O'Leary said as the government 'puts more meat on the bones' on the policy, it will realise it is something 'people will ignore'.
"Face masks are effective, 14-day isolations aren't," he added.
He said when he had discussions with the government about the details of where people should isolate and what happened if they lived with a health worker, he said they replied that 'they didn't know'.
He accused the government of mismanaging the crisis 'for many weeks' and claimed there was no science supporting the 14-day exemption for Irish, French people, hauliers and health service workers.
He said the 98.5 per cent figure had come from a hospital report and added there was 'considerable consensus that masks are effective'.
