O’Leary hints his Ryanair days may be numbered

RYANAIR chief executive Michael O’Leary has given his clearest indication yet that his days at the airline may be numbered.

In his first major engagement with Irish media since the airline suffered a major pilot rostering failure last year and recognised trade unions, Mr O’Leary said he was unlikely to be running the airline in five years’ time.

His existing five-year con- tract expires in September next year.

“I have no idea when I’ll have had enough,” said the outspoken airline boss.

“I like this company. I like working for this company. I don’t do it for the pay I get. But as long as it remains interesting and fun and challenging, I see no reason not to continue to try to lead it and lead it forward positively .”

He said there were a number of internal candidates who could replace him, but said the company should, when the time comes to replace him, also look for external successors.

Mr O’Leary said it had been fun running the company over the past year, as Ryanair faced labour strife across Europe and tortuous negotiations with unions that still haven’t been fully resolved.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” he said. “We’re growing to 142 million customers. We’ve bought Lauda Motion, we’ve added another 50 aircraft. Yes, there’s been challenges. The rostering thing last September was a balls-up. That was painful. We recovered very quickly from it. Recognising unions was not one of my best days in Ryanair, but it was inevitable at some point in time,” he said.

Mr O’Leary said the decision to recognise trade unions last year was his and that it shocked Ryanair’s other board members.

He added that he did not expect “that many strikes” at the carrier during the winter.