Michael O'Leary (businessman)

Michael O'Leary (2015)

Michael Kevin O'Leary (born March 20, 1961 in Mullingar ) is an Irish businessman and has been chairman of the low-cost airline Ryanair since 1993 . Under his leadership, Ryanair has grown from a loss-making regional airline to Europe's largest low-cost airline and the second largest European airline by number of passengers. Because of his extravagant appearances and escapades, O'Leary is considered the " enfant terrible " of the aviation industry.

Life

Michael O'Leary was born to an Irish farming couple. He became friends with Cathal and Declan Ryan, both sons of Tony Ryan , a partner in the leasing company Guinness Peat Aviation (GPA), which was powerful in the 1980s. When Tony Ryan founded Ryanair in 1985, O'Leary wasn't there.

In 1988 O'Leary was hired as a personal advisor to Tony Ryan based on his knowledge of accounting . Little Ryanair was in heavy deficit, so O'Leary looked around for ways to bring the airlines into profitability. O'Leary greatly reduced costs and, among other things, eliminated first class on board the aircraft. But these measures did not improve the situation. The state-owned Aer Lingus kept its prices down to the level of Ryanair. O'Leary recommended Ryan "shut down the damn airline."

In 1989 Tony Ryan called on the Irish Minister of Transport Séamus Brennan and reported on Ryanair's financial situation. Brennan promised to save the airline and regulated flights on the route between Ireland and London. Aer Lingus obtained the rights for Gatwick and Heathrow airports , while Ryanair for the cheaper and less busy airports Luton and Stansted . This saved the airline for the time being.

In 1992 O'Leary traveled to Dallas to get to know the model of the American low-cost airline Southwest Airlines . To this end, he met for talks with the chairman of the Southwest, Herb Kelleher. O'Leary then began to transfer the model from Southwest to Ryanair. This included converting the fleet to a single type of aircraft and short ground times of 25 minutes. Over the years, Ryanair developed other concepts to save costs. This included flying to cheaper, more remote airports. O'Leary pitted the airports against each other for discounts and subsidies. In 1993 Tony Ryan retired and limited himself to advisory functions. O'Leary succeeded him as chairman of the airline. Under his leadership, Ryanair became the largest low-cost airline in Europe.

Michael O'Leary has always tried to keep his airline present in the media. The provocative advertising campaigns initiated by O'Leary caused a sensation, as did his own public appearances. Among other things, O'Leary drove a tank from World War II in front of the headquarters of competitor easyJet in 2003 and claimed to want to free the people from Easyjet's high prices. In 2004, he was photographed in a cleaning woman's costume for the airline's official annual report. In the same year he registered his Mercedes S 500 as a taxi in order to be allowed to use the bus lane in Dublin. In 2005, O'Leary demonstrated for freedom of expression in downtown Düsseldorf.

O'Leary can always be seen in casual shirts and rarely in a suit. His appearances were sometimes described as arrogant.

O'Leary was named "Businessman of the Year" by Fortune Magazine in 2001 and was named one of the best managers of the year by Business Weekly in 2003.

In 2015 he took part in the 63rd Bilderberg Conference in Telfs-Buchen in Austria.

O'Leary is married and lives on his Gigginstown House estate near Mullingar (Ireland).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ryanair warns of a 50% plunge in profits - www.thisismoney.co.uk (English)
2. ↑ Article from "Die Welt" about Ryanair
3. ↑ O'Leary interview in the SZ: "I don't give a damn about the environment" February 28, 2011
4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090504143003/http://www.fliegertarife.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=359:kaum-interesse-an-ryanair-demo-in-duesseldorfer -innenstadt & catid = 46: flightmagtv & Itemid = 118

Web links

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