Michael O’Leary will step down: His 5 most memorable moments at the helm of Ryanair
December 15, 2025
After more than three decades shaping Europe’s largest low-cost airline, Michael O’Leary — the brash, outspoken, and often controversial chief executive of Ryanair — has outlined plans to step down from the company’s leadership by 2035.
At 64, he intends to extend his current contract through 2028 and possibly beyond before handing the reins to what he describes as a “softer” and “nicer” successor.
Under O’Leary’s leadership, Ryanair not only transformed European air travel but also fundamentally reshaped how airlines operate in a highly competitive market. From aggressive cost-cutting to headline-grabbing confrontations with regulators, his tenure has never been dull.
O’Leary turned Ryanair into a budget powerhouse
When Michael O’Leary became CEO in 1994, Ryanair was a modest regional carrier. He embraced and expanded a bold low-cost model inspired by US carrier Southwest Airlines — focusing relentlessly on operational efficiency, quick turnarounds, and ultra-low fares. This approach helped democratize air travel for millions of Europeans and propelled Ryanair to become one of the continent’s largest airlines.
O’Leary effectively grew the airline by focusing on ancillary revenue, charging for extras such as priority boarding, baggage, and onboard services, while building other robust ancillary income streams from car rentals and hotel bookings.
Few airline bosses have courted as much media attention as O’Leary. Known for his blunt, unapologetic style, he frequently made provocative statements — from criticising European air traffic control for chronic delays to suggesting drones over airports should be shot down to demanding European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, “Please now act or quit,” amid air traffic chaos.
Hectoring comments and public disputes have marked O’Leary’s tenure.
O’Leary’s most memorable moments at the helm of Ryanair
O’Leary has made so many eyebrow-raising statements in his career that compiling a full list would require an encyclopedia. These are only five examples, some recent and others past but lingering.
1. Called Spain’s Consumer Minister a “crazy communist” and represented him as a clown
Michael O’Leary labelled Spain’s consumer affairs minister Pablo Postudini a “crazy communist” while defending Ryanair’s baggage-fee policies as part of a broader clash over $186 million fine imposed on Ryanair, Vueling, easyJet, and Volotea, which Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson and O’Leary both described as “illegal.” The Irish carrier was fined $112.3 million, Vueling $40.8 million, easyJet $30.3 million, and Voltea $1.25 million.
As reported by El País, citing Spanish news agency ESE, O’Leary said Minister Bustinduy “thinks that passengers can take as much luggage as they want. And no, no they can’t.”
The airlines filed appeals with the Spanish High Court. A Spanish administrative court provisionally suspended the multimillion-dollar fine pending a review of the case. Still, Ryanair was required to provide a bank guarantee covering the fine plus interest as a condition of the suspension.
In a related stunt that grabbed European headlines, Ryanair circulated ads featuring a life-sized cut-out of the Spanish minister in a clown costume with a red nose to protest government fines and policies.
Confronting politicians is one of O’Leary’s signatures. O’Leary publicly berated the UK government over proposed travel taxes, calling officials “useless” and “hopeless.”
As reported by The Times, he took a public swipe at US President Donald Trump over his tariff policy, labelling Trump as “economically illiterate” — a rare but pointed political jab from a corporate CEO at the combative leader of the US.
2. Remarks that airport security should profile ‘Muslim men’
As reported by Euronews, in 2020, O’Leary ignited significant controversy during an interview with The London Times when he suggested airport security should focus on single Muslim men, rather than families, because families did not pose a terrorism risk.
“Who are the bombers? They are going to be single males travelling on their own… If you are travelling with a family of kids, on you go; the chances you are going to blow them all up is zero,” O’Leary was quoted as saying. “You can’t say stuff, because it’s racism, but it will generally be males of a Muslim persuasion. Thirty years ago, it was the Irish. If that is where the threat is coming from, deal with the threat.”
The London Times published the story with the headline, “Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary wants extra checks on Muslim men,” which provoked accusations that he was promoting institutional racism. However, the airline responded to Euronews with a statement disputing The London Times’ framing of the story.
“The headline in today’s paper is simply inaccurate. No call for extra checks on any group or persons was made. Michael was only calling for more effective airport security checks, which would do away with much of the unnecessary queuing at airport security today for all passengers. He apologises sincerely for any offence caused to any group by today’s inaccurate headline.”
3. Called passengers “stupid” for forgetting to print boarding passes
Responding to complaints about Ryanair’s strict boarding-pass printing rules and hefty fees, O’Leary described passengers who forgot to print their passes as “stupid.”
As The Telegraph reported, in 2012, it all began with a Facebook post by a disgruntled Ryanair passenger, Suzy McLeod, who was charged €300 to print five boarding passes before a flight from Alicante to Bristol. Her post received over half a million likes from the public, but didn’t sway the airline or its feisty executive.
“We think Mrs McLeod should pay 60 euros for being so stupid,” he said. “She wasn’t able to print her boarding card because, as you know, there are no internet cafes in Alicante, no hotels where they could print them out for you, and you couldn’t get to a fax machine, so some friend at home can print them and fax them to you.”
“She wrote to me last week asking for compensation and a gesture of goodwill. To which we have replied, politely but firmly, thank you Mrs McLeod, but it was your ****-up.”
O’Leary pointed out that 99.98% of Ryanair passengers printed their boarding passes before arriving at the airport, and added, “To those who don’t, we say quite politely: ‘B***** off’”.
4. Proposes charging passengers to use aircraft lavatories
One of the most infamous proposals attributed to O’Leary came in 2009, when he floated the idea of charging passengers £1 to use the aircraft lavatory. This never came to pass and is generally regarded as a way to get headlines, but the executive insisted it was a serious proposal at the time.
As reported by the Guardian, O’Leary calculated that charging passengers to use the facilities could boost the airline’s ancillary revenue by £15 million a year. He claimed the only thing remaining would be for Boeing to figure out how to certify lavatory doors that include a payment interface.
“We have looked into this before, and the problem is Boeing can’t come up with a mechanism on the toilet door to take coins. We’re suggesting they go back and look at a mechanism where you’d swipe the credit card for a quid on the toilet door. They’ve gone off to look at that,” he said.
Addressing concerns about this somewhat outrageous proposal, O’Leary also mused that passengers could enter the lavatory without paying and only pay to exit. Perhaps O’Leary was thinking of Sartre’s ‘No Exit’ at the time. After all, flying can sometimes prove the existential maxim that “hell is other people.”
5. O’Leary takes as well as he dishes out
Although he hasn’t shied away from dishing out confrontational quotes that generate headlines, O’Leary has also found himself on the receiving end of confrontations.
In 2023, environmental protesters threw cream pies at O’Leary outside the European Commission headquarters, drawing attention to emissions issues. As Reuters, reported, he later joked about the pie-in-the-face incident.
“My only complaint was that the cream was artificial and not tasty,” he said.
O’Leary has expressed some scepticism about airline sustainability targets and sustainable aviation fuel, saying there is “not a hope in hell” they will be met, though he has moderated his earlier cynicism about climate change.
A man, a brand, an airline: Ryanair
O’Leary’s public persona is inseparable from Ryanair’s brand. He has repeatedly courted controversy to gain publicity, sometimes attracting criticism, regulatory scrutiny, and protests, other times generating hearty chuckles in the press corps.
His unique style, sometimes profane and other times witty, has helped shape public perceptions of Ryanair as aggressively low-cost and unapologetically unique.
Perhaps O’Leary’s most enduring impact is cultural: by championing low fares and efficiency, he expanded access to air travel across Europe. Billions of passengers have flown with Ryanair over the years, many taking their first-ever flight, thanks to the affordability of the Ryanair model.
Under his leadership, Ryanair consistently delivered robust financial performance. Even in competitive markets and turbulent economic cycles, the airline posted strong profits, recently reporting a 20% rise in quarterly profit. Ryanair has demonstrated the resilience of the low-fare model, even as Southwest, the airline from which Ryanair first borrowed it, is reinventing itself in the US and other low-cost carriers are struggling.
Given the importance of his heads-on approach to the airline’s success, it’s hard to imagine what will happen when Ryanair pivots to a more moderate leader. For his part, O’Leary believes it will be a good thing.
“Taking me out at some point in the next five to 10 years would give Ryanair the opportunity to be a little bit softer and a little bit nicer,” he said, as reported by the Irish Times. “Ryanair would be better off if they didn’t have someone who was always shouting and swearing and actively lighting fires.”
Even so, Ryanair’s marketing and advertising budget might need to grow substantially to make up for all the free publicity O’Leary has earned over the decades.
Featured Image: World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC)
