AirportPlanner1
The sensible plan would have been to appreciate the short term costs and hurdles of continuing to do business from the UK which they have manifestly ignored until now. easyJet had this sorted out literally years ago. UK based aircraft remained G- whereas a new EU based AOC was set up in Austria. Ryanair UK could have had the bulk of the UK based fleet allocated in the same way, it would have some impact on the ability to base aircraft all around Europe but the market has changed and the operator should have recognised this and adapted. If Aer Lingus can set up a whole new AOC for a handful of ex MAN flights, Ryanair could easily have managed this for the whole UK operation. But they screamed and moaned and whined and didn't. It's not as if they are one unified AOC anymore themselves, they have Irish, Polish and Maltese companies, all a ruse to keep costs down.
Another winning Ducksy strategy.