The CEO of Ryanair says mandatory 14-day quarantines are 'idiotic' — and predicts deep flight discounts this summer

• Ryanair expects to be flying 50% of its usual capacity by late summer 2020, a more bullish forecast than most predict.
• CEO Michael O'Leary says holidaymakers will fuel the return, as they seek sunny beaches of Spain and Portugal.
• He also blasted mandatory quarantine periods as "idiotic" in a CNBC interview Monday.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Ryanair remains surprisingly optimistic in the face of thousands of layoffs and the number of its scheduled flights being reduced to a tiny percentage of the usual.

Michael O'Leary, chief executive of the Irish budget carrier, told CNBC Monday that he still expects many families to still take summer holidays to warmer European locations with beaches, like Spain and Portugal. That should help traffic tick up from the 1% of usual service Ryanair ran in May.

"At best we think we're talking about 50% of our normal traffic in the months of July, August, September," he said. "And then maybe a return to some degree of normality as the schools go back."

O'Leary, who's garnered a reputation in recent months for lively interviews regarding the coronavirus' dramatic effect on global air travel, also blasted government quarantine policies for overseas travelers entering the United Kingdom.

"What's likely is, as extensions ease or lose credibility, such as the 14-day lockdown, I think you will see people return in quite quick numbers," he said, noting that government ministers seem to be "making this stuff up as they go along."

Italy, he said, has taken the right approach.

"They removed this idiotic 14-day isolation that is both unimplementable and unmanageable, in favor of using masks and temperature checks," he said.

More effective, he said, are face-masks, which both passengers and crew will be required to wear.

"The reality is face masks, as demonstrated in Asia, if both a covid sufferer and and a non-covid sufferer are both wearing face masks you reduce the risk of transmission by 98%," he said.

"It will be a different experience," O'Leary said. "But I think confidence will restore pretty quickly. Then I think numbers will be stimulated by very low cost air fares."

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