At some level, being constrained and pretending is part of being civilized. People admiring "unhingedness", specially coming from people in positions of power, just sound immature, at best.

He doesn't seem unhinged to me. He seems like he has a singular goal: lowest ticket prices, and he's willing to entertain crazy ideas in pursuit of that goal that nobody else would. It's a refreshingly honest take on their corporate strategy. What's wrong with that?

And to state the obvious, if as a traveler you don't share that goal of getting the absolute cheapest ticket at all costs, you shouldn't fly Ryanair. But he's doing a great job here selling to his target demographic.

I want people in positions of power to be bland and boring, thank you very much.

This whole thing of appealing to popularity amongst a particular subset of the population by being "unorthodox", "refreshingly sincere" and "blunt" is really just a ruse to amass a little bit of unchecked power.

>He seems like he has a singular goal: lowest ticket prices

That's just a means to an end for his real singular goal: higher profits

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but his real singular goal is not "lowest ticket prices".

While true, that's a bit reductionist. All companies want higher profits. What's interesting is how companies differ from each other while chasing that goal.

This is Michael O'Leary's brand, tbh. The man would do literally anything to get airtime, which has historically been a really good strategy for Ryanair.

That being said, he's a total asshole. When I worked for them some years back he screamed at a head of function for about 30 minutes because results weren't up to par. It was at that point I decided that the company wouldn't work for me.

These are the exact conversations happening in boardrooms everywhere, but most executives are terrified to be direct and honest in public. I respect the guy for being so open about his thinking.

For flights under two hours or so, I think I'd rather be forced to stand than forced to sit. Of course, an aisle seat where I can stand or sit at will is the ideal.

Would the seatbelt have to be renamed? I can't imagine how to secure standing passengers against turbulence.

Pretty safe to ignore any corporate statements by Ryanair.

Why

The CEO has a history of being a bullshitter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_O%27Leary_(businessman...

> In 2007, O'Leary was forced to retract a claim that Ryanair had cut emissions of carbon dioxide by half over the previous five years because the claim should have been that emissions "per passenger" had been cut by half. He has been reported to have impersonated a journalist in an attempt to find information passed on to a newspaper following a safety incident on a Ryanair flight. On occasion, he has apologised for personal attacks under threat of legal action. He has been criticised by a judge for lying, who said he was lucky not to be found guilty of contempt of court. He has also been criticised for dismissing concerns about climate change as "complete nonsense".

> Reacting to the decision to close European airspace in April 2010 over worries about the volcanic ash plume from an erupting Icelandic volcano, O'Leary falsely said, "There was no ash cloud. It was mythical. It's become evident the airspace closure was completely unnecessary."

> In 2007, O'Leary was forced to retract a claim that Ryanair had cut emissions of carbon dioxide by half over the previous five years because the claim should have been that emissions "per passenger" had been cut by half.

That's still an impressive accomplishment. So I'd be inclined to believe that was just an honest mistake.

Emissions per passenger is a fake number, because it folds in flight distance, which has no business in the calculation.

Absolute emissions and emissions per passenger kilometer are real numbers.

>It's kind of refreshing to see something that hasn't passed through a public relations filter.

That was a big part of Trump's appeal to his fan base as well...however that kind of talk is not becoming of someone in a prestigious position like president (or CEO) and ruins their credibility to get things done.

Hasn't been a problem for Musk or O'Leary when it comes to getting stuff done.

It has other downsides sure, GSD isn't one of them.

They GSD despite their bad personalities, not because of them. They are the exception to the rule.

I don't think the CEO of a private company is comparable to a politician, particularly a world leader.

Given O'Leary has been CEO since the 1990s, steering the airline through Covid-19, the GFC and 9/11, he must be doing something right. At least, that's what shareholders think.

I don’t think that is necessarily true. There is a huge difference between calling a cow a cow, trying to make the cow sound like a golden calf, and trying to call a pig a cow.

Trump did a lot of the latter, corporate entities do a lot of the second, and it would often be nice if they did more of the first.

does it tho?

he’s doing alright

> It's kind of refreshing to see something that hasn't passed through a public relations filter.

It's one thing if the owner of a local bar thinks it a good idea to throw around swear words and being edgy in general. Might bring him some new business, might lose him some old business.

But owners of companies worth dozens of billions of dollars? They might want to rein in their executives a bit. Unprofessionalism always reflects back on the institution, even if Elon Musk and to a lesser degree Jeff Bezos (=we don't need to make a profit or pay out dividends) have proven themselves to be the exception to the rule.

"Unprofessional" companies like tesla and ryanair are the only companies where I put even the slightest faith in the sincereness of their public statements. I know that the truthfulness of a public statement by any "professional" company is completely incidental to the actual internal state of the company, and is calculated to communicate as little useful information as possible, while managing PR expectations.

> "Unprofessional" companies like tesla and ryanair are the only companies where I put even the slightest faith in the sincereness of their public statements.

At least Tesla is widely known for wildly fluctuating stock prices. Every time Elon posts some stupid shit on Twitter, the stock tanks.

Corporate officials have responsibility for their shareholders, and the SEC has tried more than once to teach Musk that lesson. Tesla may be a revolutionary when it comes to cars, but their stock is far from what should be in anyone's private portfolio.