Michael O'Learg might retire in 2019 when his contract expire. Your thoughts on this?

http://www.independent.ie/business/i...talks-of-a-successor-34622041.html


My comment: Hopefully this actually happens!

[Edited 2016-04-14 18:42:47]

Quoting lesfalls (Thread starter): My comment: Hopefully this actually happens!

Why? The guy has made heaps of money for the airline...

Quoting airportugal310 (Reply 1):

Because he is destroying airlines like LH or AF. Sooner or later they will only be flying longhaul routes. FR's crew also don't get as many benefits nor standards compared to other European airlines. Are you for him?

Ryanair CEO might be retiring for the last 15 years. Nothing new here.

Michael O'Leary has changed the airline industry in Europe and beyond for good. I say beyond as many of his team have successfully taken the Ryanair model to Asia too.

Quoting lesfalls (Reply 2): Because he is destroying airlines like LH or AF.

He doesn't need to. With all their strikes and worsening reputation, they are doing a great job at destroying themselves.

Quoting lesfalls (Reply 2): Because he is destroying airlines like LH or AF. Sooner or later they will only be flying longhaul routes. FR's crew also don't get as many benefits nor standards compared to other European airlines. Are you for him?

Says the person with "DY 787 for the win!" as his signature.

Quoting VCEflyboy (Reply 4):

"destroying themselves"

Hardly. They are reinventing themselves. New FFP. Experimenting with connections. Not trying to "piss people off". etc., etc.

The man's blessed. His racehorses have done great this winter and he's seen over the transformation of FR from a joke of an airline to becoming an airline of choice for millions throughout Europe.
I'd retire too !

Quoting lesfalls (Reply 2): Because he is destroying airlines like LH or AF

Bloated airlines who expect people to travel on them because they are "great" are destroying themselves with high costs, strikes etc etc...

FR (following WN) have changed the airline industry and given the mass of people what they want, a transfer from A to B.

MOL has done wonders for FR, for air travel and for the industry.

Quoting bjorn14 (Reply 6): "destroying themselves"

That quote wasn't from the poster, it referred to the quote in post 4 about the likes of AF and LH destroying themselves with strikes etc.

Quoting captainmeeerkat (Reply 8): Bloated airlines who expect people to travel on them because they are "great" are destroying themselves with high costs, strikes etc etc...

I don't think LH is bloated. They offer fair conditions for their employees and more often than not, the tickets they sell are very fairly priced.

It's not possible to sell return tickets at €30 without someone else paying the price.

Good luck to the guy. He'll have been in charge for what, something like 3 decades at that point, made a heap of cash for the airline and for himself, and he might as well go spend it while he's still young enough to enjoy it. He'll be in high demand as a Non-Exec Director or Chairman of many airlines.

Quoting AirPacific747 (Reply 10): They offer fair conditions for their employees

So why are they on strike every few months?

LH has really lost me as a customer with all those unnecessary strikes, as I have been affected many times...

Quoting lesfalls (Thread starter): Michael O'Learg might retire in 2019 when his contract expire. Your thoughts on this?

Negotiating technique to get a better deal?

Quoting BestWestern (Reply 3): Ryanair CEO might be retiring for the last 15 years. Nothing new here.

Yep! 'I'll be gone in the next 3 years' has been his mantra.

Quoting AirPacific747 (Reply 10): I don't think LH is bloated. They offer fair conditions for their employees and more often than not, the tickets they sell are very fairly priced. It's not possible to sell return tickets at €30 without someone else paying the price

If they offered fair conditions, then they wouldn't be on strike as often as they are now.

And it is possible to sell tickets for €30 and still have a well run, safe and reliable airline. The example is there.

O'Leary is kind of the Steve Jobs or Elon Musk of the aviation industry.

It would be really interesting to see what happens in Ryanair after him.

It's impossible not to admire MOL for his work at Ryanair.
Basically MOL understands the selfish nature of humans and acts accordingly.

Without the double standards and hypocracy of many of its customers, Ryanair wouldn't be a success today.
Yeah, everybody wants fair working conditions and a decent salary, but hey, who can say no to a cheap fare.

Quoting Dahlgardo (Reply 17): It's impossible not to admire MOL for his work at Ryanair.

Ho, it is possible !

Quoting Dahlgardo (Reply 17): Yeah, everybody wants fair working conditions and a decent salary, but hey, who can say no to a cheap fare.

I can... i've never traveled on FR and don't plan on doing it anytime soon.

And it's not just about salary or benefits for employees (though it's pretty damn important), it's also about :
- having to pay for everything
- calling Beauvais "Paris" (for example)
- taking subsidies then threaten to leave when subsidies end
- having people based in Marseille (for example) working under an irish contract
- ...

Business & ethics are not the best of friends... but companies usually have at least a bit of ethics... to me, FR has none.

I have mixed feelings about FR.
Having worked for many years for a maintenance supplier for this airline, I like the way hey cut back on unnecessary bureaucratic BS and how they often take preemptive action to improve efficiency and reliability. They have SOPs for about anything and will invest if they see a mid term benefit from it.

But I don't like the way Ryanair management treats their staff and the suppliers. I know that I'm not alone with it, if you look under careers on their website there are lots of vacant positions, especially on the engineering / maintenance side. Many of these jobs have been offered for months, some even for ore than a year. Ryanair's salaries are, at least in the UK, Ireland and Northern Europe, quite good, but many engineers I know refuse to work for them due to the way they get treated (constant pressure, micromanagement, rude way of talking to subordinates etc.).
I also know of external suppliers who are getting fed up of Ryanair's way of pennypinching and constant demands of renegotiating contracts to save them more money.

Mind, working now in maintenance control for another airline, sometimes I wish that I could be a bit more forceful if engineers or mechanics refuse to carry out a job with no real reason. It seems that our Ryanair station was a bit special, as we often acted proactively and actively went looking for jobs to be done, and this often got abused by Ryanair by dumping an unmanageable workload on us, but I now understand that they had other stations, where the engineers and mechanics were lazy and needed constant prodding and control to get them moving.
This is where the very detailed daily shift reports we had to write (and which we hated) came from.
With the current airline 'm working for there are some technicians with a Lufthansa /AF mentality, who won't move unless they get an explicit written order and will try to find any excuses not to do the work, no matter how flimsy.
In Ryanair they would do this exactly one time, then they would be in for an interview without coffee being served, and the next time they tried it, they would get fired.

On the other hand Ryanair burns out the good guys, who want to work, and abuses them, this is why they are leaving.

[Edited 2016-04-15 02:51:14]

IMO (and I am not joking or being ironic) O'Leary or FR should receive the European Citizens' Prize.

Ryanair has made more for the European Union than many EU policies. Their 1 or 5 euro flights have made many people discover countries they would have never thought about visiting (how many British or Italians would have visited Latvia without Ryanair?). They have expanded so many secondary international EU routes that were not served or underserved. And it is truly the first and only pan-European carrier, which shows in their international crew members all over Europe.

FR has changed my life for the better. I don't even fly them that often (about 8 flights overall), but on my 'flagship' London-Athens route that I do about 3-5 times a year my costs have now halved because FR has forced the competition A3, and BA to seriously discount their fares as FR is achieving crazy load factors on both low and high season on their 2x and sometimes even 3x daily ATH-STN-ATH flights! In fact right now which isn't exactly peak season, I did a dummy booking and FR was fully booked for the next 3-4 days, no matter what price, the ticket wasn't even being sold full to the BRIM!

So FR save me a good 500 EUR a year minimum without even flying them! Thank you Michael O'Leary!

[Edited 2016-04-15 03:07:21]

Quoting lesfalls (Reply 2):

Quite hypocritical coming from such a big Norwegian fan. Anyway FR couldn't even 'destroy' little EI......

Quoting lesfalls (Thread starter): O'Learg

Is he related to O'Leary?  

Quoting eicvd (Reply 22): Quoting lesfalls (Reply 2): Quite hypocritical coming from such a big Norwegian fan. Anyway FR couldn't even 'destroy' little EI......

Yes, but they had significant influence to the worse on working conditions and the treatment of passengers with other airlines, as those had to follow suit or being forced out of the market.

From a typical consumer's side everybody from whom he buys a product or ervice, should earn less than him and if possible provide this service or product for free. On the other hand they expect, in their own job, to earn more than anybody else.
Often such a thing only works in third world economies, where there exists a Lumpenproletariat from the slums, who is willing to do the dirty work for peanuts, which mans that everybody higher up can earn less while keping the same standard of living.

Jan

Quoting MD11Engineer (Reply 19): Ryanair's salaries are, at least in the UK, Ireland and Northern Europe, quite good, but many engineers I know refuse to work for them due to the way they get treated (constant pressure, micromanagement, rude way of talking to subordinates etc.). I also know of external suppliers who are getting fed up of Ryanair's way of pennypinching and constant demands for renegotiating contracts to save them more money.

Very similar to the way they treat their pilots and cabin crew. Interesting. I thought there was such a big demand of engineers in general that Ryanair would never be able to get away with treating their engineers any other way than very good.

Ryanair did some good things to the monopolistic aviation industry, but the Ryanair model has gotten too far at this stage and most other airlines in Europe (including many, if not most, flag carriers) now offer the same type of crappy contracts with zero rights and very poor conditions. The airlines of Europe are creating any future possible pilot shortage themselves.

It's very sad to see how the EU accepts this kind of employment method becoming widespread where salaries are paid via tax havens and the employee has to figure out where and how he will pay his taxes himself. And because everyone is working as a contractor, nobody is entitled to a pension which means when pilots and cabin crew reach retirement age, there is no way for them to financially survive. And the "tax free" salary that pilots get is fine if it indeed was tax free but how long until pilots get busted for not paying taxes?

And if they do, then there's not much left to pay for additional expenses including expensive pilot loans that need to be paid back which often exceeds €100,000

[Edited 2016-04-15 06:16:21]

I'm still waiting for his much publicised 'Free blowjobs' on Ryanair flights to become reality. I hope he doesn't retire before this project is fully implemented.







  

He's just right.

No point being the richest man in the graveyard.

Quoting MD11Engineer (Reply 24): From a typical consumer's side everybody from whom he buys a product or ervice, should earn less than him and if possible provide this service or product for free. On the other hand they expect, in their own job, to earn more than anybody else. Often such a thing only works in third world economies, where there exists a Lumpenproletariat from the slums, who is willing to do the dirty work for peanuts, which mans that everybody higher up can earn less while keping the same standard of living.

Exactly. If the general public is fine with the working conditions in aviation so they can get their cheap tickets, then I don't wanna see them whining when the same working conditions hit their own field of work.

[Edited 2016-04-15 06:25:37]

Love him or hate him, he's done wonders for his airline and the aviation industry in Europe. I would liken him to Ben Baldanza, who took a similar approach with NK, and look at them now and the aviation landscape in the US. Airlines are threatened of Spirit, and airlines in Europe are threatened by Ryanair, which is an extremely competitive airline with their low cost model.

Quoting jeffh747 (Reply 29): Love him or hate him, he's done wonders for his airline and the aviation industry in Europe.

But he's also created a big mess that even the aviation industry in the capitalistic US find to be below dignity.

Quoting TripleDelta (Reply 5):

DY treats their employees in a completely different manner from FR(EZY is even very comparable to the flag carriers).

Quoting captainmeeerkat (Reply 8): MOL has done wonders for FR, for air travel and for the industry.

You mean he has improved standards for employees all over europe working in other european airlines  

Quoting eicvd (Reply 22): Quite hypocritical coming from such a big Norwegian fan

As I said to TripleDelta their standards are not comparable even though they are LCCSs. FR is the extreme one out of all of the LCC'S in Europe.

Quoting eicvd (Reply 22): Anyway FR couldn't even 'destroy' little EI......

EI had to change their short-Haul product because of FR. Now they practically have an identical product thanks to FR.

Quoting AirPacific747 (Reply 25): Ryanair model has gotten too far at this stage and most other airlines in Europe

Agreed. It is becoming so extreme that LH wants to make EW: SN Brussels Airlines (Belgium)">SN become EW. Same is possibly going on with SK.

Quoting AirPacific747 (Reply 30): But he's also created a big mess that even the aviation industry in the capitalistic US find to be below dignity.

"There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor mre doubtful of success, not more difficult to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the perfomer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order" - Niccolo Machivelli.

I don't think that this is below dignity compared to what many legacy airlines have done to us. And they have done it just of pure making of profit rather than a reaction to the apperance of low-cost carriers.

I have lived in Hamburg and now live close to Frankfurt and FR is my carrier of choice. At the same time, I have been working in jobs relying on legacy carriers, mainly AF/KL, but also LO which gave me the worst contrast to FR ever imaginable. I didn't get a SINGLE PENNY of discount which made bookings through FR not only more reliable, but also far cheaper than those on AF/KL and also AB/X3/GW/EW and many others. LH is in my opinion the worst of the bunch with not only an arrogance towards non-Star Alliance carriers unknown but also far more expensive fares compared to FR (and U2 compared in Hamburg times).

Oh, and without FR, places like Bratislava, Kaunas, Forli or Girona wouldn't have appeared on my map of possible destinations.

Yes, therefore I am happy that MOL has created a monster which made the legacy carriers rethink about their position. I am glad that he made an airline which has made more for European integration than many politicians did in Brussels. And I hope that he or someone else carries on the spirit for a long time to come. May Michael O'Leary's ideas live on in the form of Ryanair! Thank you MOL for changing the world of aviation!

Quoting AirPacific747 (Reply 28): Exactly. If the general public is fine with the working conditions in aviation so they can get their cheap tickets, then I don't wanna see them whining when the same working conditions hit their own field of work

Who says they haven't already? I'm not saying you're wrong, but aviation isn't the only industry where there are deep labour issues and a wider perspective is needed.

In the UK/Ireland, a lot of the practices that I see commentators taking issue with are unfortunately rife in our labour market. Compared to other Northern European jurisdictions, conditions aren't particularly good, especially for service workers. Dubious 'self-employment'*, low pay, zero hours contracts, no union representation, casualisation etc are commonplace.

Say you're a "self-employed" taxi driver working for Uber in the UK, who in my eyes is just as responsible for safety as a member of cabin crew, and you want to visit your relatives in Ireland and the cheapest and easiest way in on FR. You don't have a lot of disposable income but you work hard for it - is he/she going to care about the conditions in another industry? I suspect not any more than the pilots and cabin crew getting in the Uber taxi care about his/her conditions.

Have you ever taken a ferry? Some of the labour conditions are appalling on shipping lines. My aforementioned taxi driver could take a ferry to Ireland with Irish Ferries - a company that has been known to employ labour from the Far East for a pittance.

People look after their own interest and try to support themselves in the best way they can, I wouldn't call that selfishness. The only way to improve conditions is to legislate against disfavoured practices. Or the airlines will have to improve conditions if there's a shortage of crew applicants.

*Interesting report about this: www.ippr.org/files/publications/pdf/...nt-Europe_Jan2015.pdf?noredirect=1

[Edited 2016-04-15 08:34:11]

[Edited 2016-04-15 08:36:42]

Quoting lesfalls (Reply 31): DY treats their employees in a completely different manner from FR(EZY is even very comparable to the flag carriers).

The problem there is, which part of DY? There's DY's Scandinavian crews, their long-haul US, UK and Thai agency crews, and their short-haul Finland, Spain and UK agency crews. From what I gather, there's quite a difference depending on which group you're in.

Love him or loathe him, the industry will be a duller place without him.

Quoting AirPacific747 (Reply 25): And the "tax free" salary that pilots get is fine if it indeed was tax free but how long until pilots get busted for not paying taxes?

A few years ago the German tax office went after FR pilots and cabin crew based in Germany, who did pay not tax at all. Some pilots had to repay six digit sums.
If they had paid their taxes in Ireland, they would have been ok, but they paid neither in Germany nor in Ireland.

Quoting AirPacific747 (Reply 30): But he's also created a big mess that even the aviation industry in the capitalistic US find to be below dignity.

Yes, competition and opening up the continent is a big mess indeed. FR have of course done everything wrong and that is why the likes of LH and AF need to set up their own low cost carriers....

The fact that two of the top 5 largest airlines in Europe are low cost airlines should be enough to tell anyone that the nature of air travel has changed, and for the better for any sane person who thinks with his wallet and not his heart.

LH is a prime example of a bloated airline. Why? It is bloated with staff who don't want to work for the conditions offered (seemingly better than FR) and it is bloated by management who spend their time trying to acquire the likes of SK or more of SN, rather than deal with the gaseous problem of staff!

Quoting lesfalls (Reply 31): You mean he has improved standards for employees all over europe working in other european airlines

I mean that people are free to work wherever they choose and aren't tied to their company except by choice (yes, including who signed up to cadetships and pay to fly programmes)

Again, I ask if everything is so awful with FR and the legacy carriers are perfect - why is LH a strike melting pot over the last year and why are AF employees physically attacking management?

Quoting SCQ83 (Reply 16): O'Leary is kind of the Steve Jobs or Elon Musk of the aviation industry.

This is frankly the most hilariously inaccurate comparison I have ever read in 10 years on A.net. Steve (RIP) and Elon (and anyone who truly understands what they where / are doing) would laugh you out of town if they heard this.

Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Michael O'leary... Doesn't really ring true LOL.

Sandyb123

O'Leary said he'd leave once the airline started taking a more customer friendly turn... they have done and he's still there. He's taken more of a back seat, but he's there and he's still very much a presence.

Ryanairs board can't get enough of him, he makes them a tonne and a half of money and is always looking for ways to make more, and he isn't doing a bad job of it.

The only reason people don't like MOL and Ryanair is that they've caused the biggest shake up of modern aviation, to the point that the loss making legacy airlines are genuinely worried.

I wouldn't be surprised if O'Leary went to his grave in his mission to make Ryanair the most prolific, financially invincible airline in Europe.

Quoting EI320 (Reply 35): Love him or loathe him, the industry will be a duller place without him.

  

It'll be a sad day when he does retire.

mariner

Quoting eclipz (Reply 18): - having people based in Marseille (for example) working under an irish contract

How exactly is this bad? Are the people held prisoner and forced to under an Irish contract against their will?

Quoting lesfalls (Thread starter): My comment: Hopefully this actually happens!

Who says there will be any change in this regard if he steps down ?