The CEO of Europe’s biggest airline is in a growing spat with a US congressman who warned him against buying any planes from China, as tariffs cause uncertainty in the aviation industry.
Several media outlets reported Thursday that Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary threatened to cancel orders for new planes from Boeing if tariffs are levied on the jets.
It came two days after he was sent a letter by Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
He said he was raising “strong concerns” about the Ryanair boss’s comments in a March interview.
“The Chinese are basically building a fucking A320. So if it was cheap enough — 10 or 20% cheaper than an Airbus aircraft — then we’d order it,” O’Leary told travel industry outlet Skift.
The Comac C919 is a narrow-body plane similar to the best-selling Airbus A320 and Boeing’s 737. It has received over 1,000 orders, almost entirely from airlines in Southeast Asia.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury believes Comac’s rise could see the sector go “from a duopoly to a potential triopoly.”
Ryanair is a budget carrier with hundreds of Boeing 737s, making it one of the American planemaker’s biggest customers. It also operates smaller subsidiaries that fly Airbus jets.
However, Ryanair has kept its options open over concerns the European Union could impose tariffs on American products in response to Donald Trump’s 10% levy.
Krishnamoorthi, the Democratic representative for Illinois’s 8th congressional district, told the Irish airline it shouldn’t do business with China.
He cited a Justice Department indictment from 2018 that accused 10 Chinese intelligence operatives of participating in a corporate espionage campaign to steal information about turbofan jet engines.
He also said “evidence indicates” Comac has received government subsidies, although Boeing and Airbus have also done so in the past.
The Ryanair boss appears to be holding firm, reportedly saying in his Thursday reply that he would look to alternative suppliers, including Comac.
Ryanair and the Democrats of the House Select Committee on the CCP did not reply to requests for comment sent by Business Insider.
While Comac would massively benefit from an order from a major aviation player like Ryanair, tariffs could be a make-or-break moment for the upstart manufacturer.
The C919 relies heavily on American-made parts, on which China has imposed tariffs of 125%.
However, a potential EU-US trade war could raise prices for planes from aviation’s two main players, Airbus and Boeing.
Analysts at Barclays predicted that this “might well prove the catalyst to launch the competing Chinese C919 narrow body onto the international stage.”
