Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary: 'Seatbelts on planes are pointless'

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Wearing seatbelts on planes is pointless and won't save passengers in a crash, chief executive of Ryanair Michael O'Leary has said, as he tries to launch 'standing room only' cabins.

According to the Daily Telegraph, O'Leary claims laws forcing travellers to wear seatbelts are useless, unnecessary and insisted upon by authorities he deems 'plonkers'.

Instead, passengers should be allowed to stand at the back on a plane, which he considers to be 'just a b----- bus with wings.'

The Ryanair boss said: 'If there ever was a crash on an aircraft, God forbid, a seatbelt won't save you.'

'Seatbelts don't matter,' he told the Daily Telegraph.

'You don't need a seatbelt on the London Underground. You don't need a seatbelt on trains which are travelling at 120mph and if they crash you're all dead...'

O'Leary is currently looking to create 'standing room only' cabins for students and budget travellers, selling £1 tickets to destinations in Europe.

He suggested the back ten rows of seats being removed on aircrafts to accommodate the less-discerning passengers who would travel on their feet.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he said that when it comes to landing, passengers could 'hang on to the handle' and it would be 'fine'.

'If you say to passengers it's £25 for the seat and £1 for the standing cabin, I guarantee we will sell the standing cabin first,' he said. 'No question.

'You should be able to choose from a safety perspective.

'We're not talking about areas of huge turbulence around Europe.

'We don't have heavy landings anymore. If you say to someone, "look, hang onto the handle there, you're coming in to land", they'll be fine.

'We operate 1500 flights a day. They don't come skidding in. This is a very routine, safe form of travel.'

The 'standing cabin' proposals are currently being ruled out by European Safety regulations which say passengers must wear belts during take-off and landing.

Outspoken chief executive O'Leary said: 'We're always looking for new ways of doing things; it's the authorities who won't allow us to do them.

'They are all a bunch of plonkers.'

He told the Daily Telegraph that flights should no longer be considered a luxurious experience and 'most people just want to get from A to B.'

'You don't want to pay £500 for a flight.

'You want to spend that money on a nice hotel, apartment or restaurant... You don't want to p--- it all away at the airport or on the airline.'

'The problem with aviation is that for 50 years it's been populated by people who think it's this wondrous sexual experience; that it's like James Bond and wonderful and we'll all be flying first class when really it's just a b----- bus with wings.'

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