Michael O'Leary: the outrageous Irish airline entrepeneur

The Ryanair boss has been described as 'a stunt pilot whose enemies would love to see him crash'. Was his audacious bid for Aer Lingus a stunt too far?

It seemed to come out of the blue, but no-one should really have been surprised by the audacity of Ryanair's e1.48bn bid for Irish national carrier Aer Lingus, says The Independent. Michael O'Leary specialises in being outrageous.

He outrages customers requesting refunds because their granny has fallen ill: "You are not getting a refund, so fuck off". He outraged Ryanair's millionth customer by telling her that lifetime free flights did not cover a bank holiday weekend. He outraged a man with cerebral palsy by charging him £18 for the use of a wheelchair up to the plane. He even outraged his own mother a devout Catholic by dressing up as the Pope to launch a route to Rome.

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Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.