Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has predicted ‘pilot-less’ planes could soon become a reality.
The Ryanair chief said completely autonomous flights could happen “in the next 40 to 50 years,” arguing that the technology for single-pilot flights already exists.
While UBS research suggests only 17% of passengers would be willing to fly without a pilot, O’Leary believes “ticket prices will probably help dispel those fears”.
Meanwhile, the Irish airline has cancelled almost 200 flights on Friday, blaming strikes by cabin crew based in Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy and Germany.
- CEO of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, has predicted that we’ll see autonomous aircraft in the next 40 to 50 years.
- UBS research suggests only 17% of travellers would be willing to fly without a pilot, but O’Leary doesn’t think this is a dealbreaker.
- The Ryanair CEO said ticket prices will probably help dispel any fears travellers may have of flying aboard a pilot-less plane.
According to Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, the next revolution in flying is “aircraft operated by a single pilot in the cockpit”, and it’s already here.
“We already have the technology,” said O’Leary in an interview with Business Insider Polska, adding that the next stage will be completely autonomous aircraft.
“It wouldn’t surprise me to see ‘pilot-less’ planes soon,” said O’Leary. “It will probably happen in the next 40 to 50 years — perhaps we’ll all be flying ‘passenger drones’!”
Other managers and aviation experts have also hinted at these developments in the near future: in 2017, Swiss bank UBS published research saying the airline industry may be able to start using remote-controlled planes as soon as 2025 — a move that could save them $35 billion a year.
