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Fascinating interview. In many ways, the guy is a breath of fresh air. His description of Bertie Ahern as a "feckless ditherer" is just so apt. It surpasses even the very good "useless wastrel" that he described him beforeOriginally Posted by Abacus
The comparison with Des O'Malley was interesting as well. When they tried to bring in a law, making it illegal for travel agents (but not Aer Lingus or BA) to sell discounted air tickets O'Malley recognised it for the crock of sh!t that it was, but Ahern came up with this mealy mouthed formula that the government was against it, but the Dáil was (or something else ridiculous like that). Typical Bertie, trying to be everything to all men.
It was interesting as well that he refused to go to the international Farmleigh get together there recently. Quite rightly, he sensed the conflicting aims of self-serving, publicity seeking, politicians with the stated aim of helping to fix the country's problems.
His views on income tax are interesting also. A lot of people will agree with him, that 50% marginal tax, is a rough limit, beyond which, difficulties will arise in the long run, simply by people like him (and even less well paid people, imo) emigrating.
While I admire his candour, on matters political, I still believe his obnoxious, and arrogant style has actually damaged his company more than it has helped it. The fact that Ryanair don't use advertising agencies (anyone with a pony tail would be run out of the place) and the fact that they stick to the "no such thing as bad publicity" maxim shows an incredibly naive attitude towards PR. I've always believed that the reality of Ryanair is nothing like as bad as the public image. A small example from Marian's interview. MOL noted that the average fare paid by passengers out of Shannon was €8 all in. It was obvious that Marian (and most listeners I'd guess) just didn't believe that. They would presume that all kinds of charges and taxes would be added to that. I've noticed that before. Sometimes, Ryanair run a promotion where their low, discounted fares included all charges, but nobody who doesn't actually avail of these fares, actually believes it.
He made some interesting points as well about the aviation regulator, but again, unless you actually heard this interview, you wouldn't be likely to have a favourable view towards Ryanair, in their never ending dispute with regulators/airports.
But, in any case, it was a riveting interview. mp3 here
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