Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary expects an airline price war to reboot the dormant aviation market when the coronavirus restrictions are lifted and tourists start returning to holiday destinations.

The budget airline boss dismissed predictions of a sluggish recovery, instead forecasting a swift rebound in traffic powered by ‘massive price-dumping’ that airlines seeking bailouts would struggle to match.

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Speaking to Reuters, Mr O’Leary said he assumed European flight would remain grounded until a ‘limited’ resumption in June before a resurgence driven by deep discounts on last-minute flights in July and August.

‘Lots of people across northern Europe have been locked up in apartments,’ he said. ‘They will all want to go on holiday before the kids go back to school as long as they can do so in reasonable safety.’

He went onto sats that before too long passenger ‘volumes will be back on a normal footing but on lower pricing.

‘The minute we’re about to start flying again we’ll start doing seat sales, and so will every other airline.’

Mr O’Leary said that Ryanair’s low-cost model and robust balance sheet better prepared the company to recover through slashing prices, with fares unlike to increase before next year.

‘Whether it’s €9.99, €4.99, €1.99, or 99c per seat, we almost don’t care — our critical thing in the short term isn’t to make money, it will be to get our pilots and cabin crew back flying and the aircraft back in the air.

‘2021 has every prospect of being a bumper year in terms of earnings,” Mr O’Leary also predicted. ‘Pricing might be lower but oil prices will be lower’ and airports will cut charges to encourage traffic growth.

Mr O’Leary is at odds with analysts and rival airline Lufthansa, who believe traffic levels will only return to 2019 levels in 2023-4 while plane manufacturers and airline body IATA have also warned of a slow recovery from the pandemic.

The Irishman said Ryanair would retain all orders for Boeing 737 Max aircraft and teased that the company might even buy more jets while prices are depressed.

He predicted that Boeing would resume production of the 737 Max in the second half of he year, with the first of 135 MAX jets on order likely to reach Ryanair in late 2020 or early 2021.