Michael O'Leary (businessman)

O’Leary in 2015

Michael O'Leary (born 20 March 1961) is one of the Republic of Ireland's wealthiest businessmen and Group CEO of Irish airline Ryanair.

Quotes

• We have the best customer service in Europe. Our customer service doesn't consist of giving you fine wines and big fat seats for your big fat backside, or giving you frequent flyer points so you can travel again at your employer's expense. Our customer service consists of three things that people really want: a cheap flight, an on-time flight, and we promise not to lose your bags in between. As a result of that formula which seems very simple yet is incredibly revolutionary within the airline industry, we have delivered 27 years of continuous growth and we're now the world's favourite airline: we carry more internationally scheduled passengers than any other airline.
  • Speech at the EU Innovation Convention, 2011

• We charge for checked-in bags not because we want your money, we just don't want your bloody checked-in bag!
  • Speech at the EU Innovation Convention, 2011

• I'm not a cloud bunny or an aerosexual. I don't like aeroplanes.
  • Undated. Quoted in The Guardian, 8 November 2013

• Human factors are always very important to us. I'm often asked at these kind of lectures, 'How do you motivate your people?' And I think fear works great.
  • 24th Carmichael Lecture, Dublin, 13 November 2015

• Two or three years ago, we decided to do something truly revolutionary in the airline business, and that was not just offer very low fares, but to offer very low fares and be nice to people. And that being nice to people has... been truly transformative of our business. In the last two years of being nice to people, my traffic has gone up from 80 million to 115 million, and my profits have doubled... If I'd only known that being nice to customers was so good for my business I would have done it years ago. But I'm still learning as we go along.
  • Paris Air Forum, June 2016

• There will never be a shortage of people who get paid 150,000 bucks a year to work about 18 hours a week.
  • On the "pilot shortage". "Creative Minds" conference, US Embassy, 7 September 2016

• I respect pilots. If you sit in the cockpit of a plane flying at 400 or 500 miles an hour, landing in 40 or 50 feet of visibility, you have untold respect for pilots. That doesn't mean that they don't do a very easy job, and that they are very well paid for doing what is a very easy job. We are in an era now where the computer does most of the flying. They're no longer there doing the flying themselves. But they are skilled professionals, they do a very skilled job... But are they hard-worked? No. Is 900 hours a year, or 18 hours a week on average [of flying] likely to generate fatigue? No. But you could not fail to respect and admire the professionalism of not just Ryanair's pilots but all commercial pilots.
  • 21 September 2017, press conference quoted in the Irish Times

• Ryanair is responsible for the integration of Europe by bringing lots of different cultures to the beaches of Spain, Greece and Italy, where they couple and copulate in the interests of pan-European peace.
  • The Saturday interview: Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary. The Guardian (2018-11-18). Retrieved on 2023-03-24.

• I don't think there's going to be ten euro flights anymore because oil prices are significantly higher as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Our average fare, which last year was 40 euros... we think that 40 euros will need to edge up to 50 euros in the next five years. There's no doubt that at the lower end of the marketplace, our really cheap promotional fares — the one euro fares, the 0.99 euro fares, even the 9.99 euro fares — I think you will not see those fares for the next number of years.
  • Today Programme, BBC Radio 4, August 2022

Newsnight Interview (February 24, 2011)

Newsnight Interview about Irish elections, February 24, 2011, Time Index 41 mins.

• Serious business people would never get elected in Ireland. You don't get elected in this country if you run around and tell people the truth. You've got to run round and lie to them about 'it will be all right on the night' and then they'll vote for you.

• This is not the bloody potato famine. We're sending people abroad now for a couple of years. These kids will get good experience and they will come back!
  • In relation to the emigration of the young in Ireland

• We're already in honk up to, above our ears. You can't continue to run these fiscal deficits. It has to be eliminated!

• We're bright, we're well educated, Let's get up off our backsides now and go and create something postive for our kids.

External links

• Ryanair