He checked me in on a flight to Gatwick, three years ago. Took the piss out of my t-shirt and took my smart ass comments back to him, in good faith…

He seems to rub an awful lot of people up the wrong way but I think he’s a different breed and that’s great! If it takes checking passports at the gate to get free publicity, more power to him! A lot of other MD’s could use some of that innovation!

Remember the good old days of Irish aviation, wonderful service etc etc. and £250 tickets to London? Good for you Michael O’Leary.

Think what you like, he’s a good businessman. Personally I don’t fly Ryanair any more unless I’m travelling without my family as I don’t like the no frills approach……but that’s the point.

I have a choice….so do you. it’s like eating all your food in a chipper and then complaining it was slop!

Spare a thought for Michael O’Leary, Chief Executive of Ryanair…

Arriving in a hotel in Dublin, he went to the bar and asked for a pint of draught Guinness. The barman nodded and said, “That will be one euro please, Mr. O’Leary.”

Somewhat taken aback, O’Leary replied, “That’s very cheap,” and handed over his money.

“Well, we try to stay ahead of the competition”, said the barman. “And we are serving free pints every Wednesday evening from 6 until 8. We have the cheapest beer in Ireland.”

“That is remarkable value.” Michael comments.

“I see you don’t seem to have a glass, so you’ll probably need one of ours. That will be three euro, please.”

O’Leary scowled, but paid up. He took his drink and walked towards a seat.

“Ah, you want to sit down?” said the barman. “That’ll be an extra two euro.

You could have pre-booked the seat, and it would have only cost you a euro.”

“I think you may to be too big for the seat sir, can I ask you to sit in this frame please?”

Michael attempts to sit down but the frame is too small and when he can’t squeeze in.

He complains, “Nobody would fit in that little frame.”

“I’m afraid if you can’t fit in the frame you’ll have to pay an extra surcharge of four euro for your seat, sir.”

O’Leary swore to himself, but paid up. “I see that you have brought your laptop with you,” added the barman. “And since that wasn’t pre-booked either, that will be another three euro.”

O’Leary was so annoyed that he walked back to the bar, slammed his drink on the counter, and yelled, “This is ridiculous, I want to speak to the manager.”

“Ah, I see you want to use the counter,” says the barman, “that will be two euro, please.”

O’Leary’s face was red with rage.

“Do you know who I am?”

“Of course I do, Mr. O’Leary,”

“I’ve had enough. What sort of hotel is this? I come in for a quiet drink and you treat me like this. I insist on speaking to the manager!”

“Here is his e-mail address, or if you wish, you can contact him between 9 and 9.10 every morning, Monday to Tuesday at this free phone number. Calls are free, until they are answered, then there is a talking charge of only 10 cent per second.”

“I will never use this bar again!” fumes Michael.

“OK sir, but remember, we are the only hotel in Ireland selling pints for €1 …..

Hope he’s checking my passport on my flight on Friday. I’d like to thank him personally for all the cheap flights I’ve bought and for the opportunity to visit many great European cities that I just could not afford without his help :D

No stunt, he has often done this down through the years, in particular if he is a passenger on the flight himself to speed things up. He used load the baggage in years past until strict health and safety training requirements stopped his drop by sessions. It’s not a publicity stunt, just a man who cannot sit still.

Good to see the CEO of a major company roll up his sleeves so to speak!

Sick of people slagging Ryan air you get what you pay for, stick to their rules and you can get great value for money, I have travelled with them on a number of occasions and have never been disappointed, their staff were friendly, great with the kids and we always arrived early.
Just pack less you never wear all your clothes on hols anyway :)
Good man Michael !

Love ya Micky. Only for him I could not afford to fly back to Ireland a few times a year to see my Grandchildren ,

Love ya Micky. Only for him I could not afford to fly back to air eland a few times a year to see my Grandchildren ,

At least he checked the passports. The security at passport control in cork just wave people through. I don’t know why passports can’t be scanned in arrival when you land and go through passport control as is case in other EU countries. Would control people’s fears of people flying in to collect social and flying back out. Suspicious cases would be flagged. Re privacy, fly into Germany and your passport is scanned to see if you are on any interpol list. Nothing to hide nothing to fear!

In saying that I actually like the guy because of his cheeky chap approach and could maybe teach a few people in this country how to do business , eh Enda !!!

This is a business leader making sure he stays in touch with the day to day realities of his business, employees and customers. If a passenger had not decided to initiate the publicity there would have been none.

The man knows business, And you are happy to get flights for next to nothing.
then you have no right to complain afterwards.
you get what you pay for.

I try if at all possible not to use them at least he has brought the price of other airlines down

A cunning stunt indeed!

One of the greatest European entrepreneurs. Respect and a good example of making a business.

I Work in the airport and see him do this a lot.

Love it well done.

Pity he wouldn’t take the reins from the bunch of muppets, FG, FF, labour etc who are there to run our country.
He rubs people up but he runs a serious business.

I hope one day he runs for election as an independent.
He will get my vote.

He is a true business man, never misses a beat.! Out meeting his customers and never shy in voicing his opinion.!!

“The anonymous user who sent this in” aka Ryanair employee

Nothing to say except … ‘positive’ .

@ gavin Mcdonnell when you fly to Barcelona with ryanair and have to take a 1 hour 40 bus trip to get to the city you would understand, all in all every cost saving mechanism that Micheal ” Arrogent Ass” O’ Leary has introduced is reflected in the service, even air crew members are acting like lucky lucky men, trying to sell you unnecessary products, maybe you like that kind of service, maybe your the kind that buys the Ryan air calender,

anyways i’ll fly to the city i want to go the next time i travel instead of going to a airport 50 miles outside of the city advertised,

and that will be with aerlingus,

O’Leary is currently trying to get a judge removed from hearing a Ryanair case because he fears the judge will be prejudice. The reason is that this judge presided over a previous case where he found Ryanair deliberately gave false evidence to the court..
The reason Ireland loves this guy is because that’s what Ireland does.
We love our chancers and liars.

Perhaps that explains after almost 100 yrs of home rule the country is still bankrupt. We are still in denial though. We like to blame the ‘English’ instead of taking some responsibility.

The man thrives on publicity – any publicity. But behind all the PR guff there is a very cynical CEO and company. The model works of course hence the massive profits for Ryanair and O’Leary has personally made hundreds of millions. But does he/they have to be so coldhearted and nasty? People will red thumb this comment and ask “so why do you fly Ryanair?” Because there is no reasonably priced alternative. Ryanair owns a sizable slice of Aer Lingus and is quite happy to let our former national carrier charge high prices so he can fill his cattle ships – sorry aircraft, while all the time abusing people and ripping them off at every turn. I just wish some decent human being would start a “low fares airline”.

O’Dear-y does this on an ongoing basis, especially if he is booked on the flight.
Looks good especially so for an airline that treats its customers so badly

Ryan air use new Boeing 737s (cattle ships) ?? Don’t think so

If I found him when getting a flight , I would take a chance to tell him about all the complains I am waiting for response for months as seems my emails don’t get to complains departments or anyone!!

i am gobsmacked by the amount of support this fella gets in ireland.he is a slimey,smart alec conman.he’ll eventually drive out the competition,keep all these fees and charges he instigated,and the then jack up the prices why is this conman so popular in your country??

He was salivating while checking out people’s carry on luggage. This was just a profit projection exercise as Ryanair passengers be paying for that privilege very soon.

New waist measurement equipment will also be installed at the gate very soon and I believe he was issuing fat stickers to potential targets.

He’s great

Michael O’Leary was talking on Sky news blah other day say he was waiting for hours for a BA flight to London from Dublin OOPS! but knock him down ya, we all now we will still use Ryanair

Flew to London on Friday, tried checking in 3 hours 45 before the flight, but couldn’t because of the four hours policy so got caught for and extra 180 euro, 60 pp, what a scam, on the way back plane was so packed i had to take my hand luggage on my lap, flight was delayed too, it was hot, sticky,and slow? It’s as bad as thumbing a lift, because you get dropped know where near where your planning to go

Slow news day? This isn’t the first time he’s done this.

I admire him. Great business brain. He transformed airfare prices in Ireland and gave us a chance to travel Europe cheap before the mafia of Aerlingus held us to Ransom. Well done o Leary in a economy were billionaire s like the Quinns are going bust he is still making money. Our government should learn from his attention to detail.

Great publicity for Ryanair whatever is said!