Let’s hope for all our sakes O’Leary can sort this mess

NOBODY should glory in the current difficulties facing one of Ireland’s biggest companies, Ryanair. For the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) to declare this week that ‘we have them on their knees’ as it tried to recruit Ryanair pilots, was distasteful and unnecessary.

Of course, as a trade union, Ialpa has every right to recruit members, but there is no need to be intemperate – a label normally reserved for Ryanair.

After all, it was Ryanair that took countless thousands of Irish people into the air for the first time by making it affordable.

Where was Ialpa when the main airline in Ireland ensured that the Dublin-to-London route was the single most expensive journey in the world per airmile?

Ialpa also claimed that Ryanair thrived on a ‘culture of disrespect’ towards its passengers – when in fact, the troubled airline had most respect for travellers’ pay packets by dramatically reducing the price of air travel.

Yes, Ryanair has made an almighty mess of the rostering crisis that has befallen it (though it is striking that other airlines have escaped similar consequences). Initial handling of the mess was disastrous.

But at least in the last few days, when Michael O’Leary announced more cancellations, the company seems to have taken some serious PR advice by giving affected passengers plenty of warning and a modest gift voucher. Ryanair’s reputation for punctuality and reliability has suffered, but it was second to none. Ryanair has changed the way we live – and there is no going back.

For all his bluster and braggadocio Michael O’Leary – who I have sparred with on the airwaves on behalf of passengers, but never actually met – is upfront and does apologise when he has to. He is not deluded when it comes to the reality of everyday commercial life – that is why he employs 13,000, flies 400 planes from 83 locations and why Ryanair has just become the first airline in the world to have carried more than one billion passengers.

He also lives here and is one of the biggest taxpayers in Ireland – and says he has no problem paying 50% of his income in tax – despite his criticism of politics and politicians. The imminent disaster facing the massive Bombardier airline plant in Belfast with a loss of up to 4,000 jobs – coincidentally the same number of pilots that Ryanair employs – and the proactive reaction of the British and Canadian government to this potentially catastrophic outcome, is a reminder of how vital jobs are. So we should treasure the employment Ryanair has brought to Ireland.

The Bombardier crisis (does anyone remember that they used to build buses in Shannon?) was caused by Trump’s attempt to ‘make America great again’ by slapping a 220% tax on airline imports to the US. It is a reminder of what life might be like in a postBrexit world where massive trade tariffs will be the order of the day.

So, let’s hope, for all our sakes in these deeply uncertain times, that Michael O’Leary can sort out the almighty mess.