Why does everybody despise Ryanair and Michael O’ Leary?
That is one question I simply cannot wrap my head around. The sheer amount of
negative publicity the man, and the airline, receives is bordering on
ridiculous. Never in my entire life have I seen an airline, or nearly any
company for that matter, receive so much negative press from the media and
public.
People base their judgements on the obvious arguments, “Oh
don’t fly with them, they’ll drop you 100km from where you thought you were
going”, or maybe the old “I thought the flight was 10€ but ended up paying €150
because they never told me” or the classic “I got charged €50 at check in
because I left my boarding pass at home”.
All the above excuses have one element in common, an element
that is representative of the current generation, sheer and utter laziness.
People expect a whole lot to be done but with minimal effort and if the results
aren’t what they expected then it’s someone else’s fault of course, never their
own.
I have the utmost respect for O’ Leary, building practically
the most profitable airliner in Europe from scratch and not batting so much as
an eyelid at anyone who directed criticism his way in the process. I am
extremely grateful to O’ Leary for without his innovative and pioneering method
of running Ryanair I would not have been lucky enough to set foot in half of
the European cities I have visited.
Ever since I first set foot in sunny Spain as a kid I have
been fascinated by travel, eager to fulfil this innate desire to experience
somewhere new almost the minute I stepped off the plane back in Ireland. This
desire grew with me as I grew older and again I was lucky enough to enjoy
frequent breaks to mainland Europe. I guess I could also consider myself
somewhat fortunate to have been raised in the ‘Celtic Cub’ era when travelling
abroad for a short break on mid-terms was just the normal thing to do.
It is these opportunities, made possible by Mr O’ Leary that
I owe for striking me down with the travel bug. Had I not had the chance to of
experience different cultures at a young age I may not have decided to take the
plunge and relocate abroad for six months in both the Canary Islands and
Australia respectively. The only aspect that bothers me about both is I cannot
choose which six months was the best of my life.
The message I am trying to convey is that there is limitless
opportunities to be exploited if people would take a moment and stop expecting
everything to be laid on a plate for them. They are missing out on these
opportunities simply because they are too lazy to go that extra step and put in
a little effort to read what service is provided.
Ryanair are well described by one of the oldest phrases in
the book, they are a company that do exactly what they say on the tin and you
get precisely what you pay for. People need to mature, take responsibility for
their own actions and stop blaming others, in this case Ryanair, for their
errors in judgement and mistakes.
