MADRID — Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary made his first
appearance at a World Travel & Tourism Council Global (WTTC) Summit here, and lived up to his reputation for speaking his mind, without regard
for business niceties or political correctness.
Some quotes from a panel he was on:
• On growth of tourism in Europe: “Growth is going to be
stellar, but that’s because we’re competing against a lot of pretty incompetent
providers. But any sense of optimism should be heavily tempered by what kind of
stupidity will be visited on us by the European Commission and politicians. ...
If it’s anything as bad as the last five years, it will be spectacularly
incompetent.”
• On French air traffic controllers striking:
“If this conference was held last week, nobody would be able to get here
because the French buggered off on strike again and shut most of the skies over
Europe. We issue a press release every time the French air traffic controllers
go on strike calling on the European Commission to remove the right to
strike from French air traffic controllers, and it is a bit like advocating
pedophilia. [Adopting a hysterical voice] “You can’t prevent the French from
striking!” Well, they don’t allow the French military to go on strike. Mind
you, no one would notice anyway.”
• On a former E.C. president who preceded O’Leary on stage:
“You have Jose Manuel Barroso, who thankfully I didn’t have a chance to listen
to today, because I’m sure it would have been irrelevant anyway. He sat there
for 10 years and did nothing for tourism, absolutely nothing. Except taxes.”
"If this conference was held last week, nobody would be able to get here because the French buggered off on strike again." — Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary
• At one point, Stephen Sackur, a BBC presenter who interviewed
O’Leary, told him, “I met [Barroso] earlier, and I said, ‘I hope you’re going
to stay for the panel discussion, because we’ve got Michael O’Leary on the
panel.’ And he said, ‘I hope he understands just how much the European
Commission did for airlines like his …”
(O’Leary interrupted with a Bronx cheer.)
Sackur continued: “… opening up the airline industry across
Europe, getting rid of protectionism in countries like Germany.”
O’Leary: “You have to ask Manuel Barroso why is it consumers
in Europe pay a tax, this bloody, useless emissions trading scheme. Nobody else
— Americans visit Europe, Chinese visit Europe, Turks visit Europe — they all
told Europe to piss off.”
Sackur: “Well, you’re in the grumpy chair.”
O’Leary: “No, I’m in the happy chair!”
• On building another runway at Heathrow: “We have three
large competing airports in London: Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. They all
want to build an additional runway. They should be allowed to go ahead. … What
you don’t need is a government commission, a government minister or anybody
else pandering to BBC journalists in West London. Go ahead and build the
runway. If the people of West London don’t like it, move!”
• On European skies becoming a true single market: “I want a
single market in Europe. The problem is the single market keeps being hijacked
by politicians so they get more power and more control. They’re incapable of
making any decisions. Why does the tourism industry in Europe struggle? You’ve
got 50% youth unemployment in Italy, yet they introduce a municipal tax of 6.5
euros per passenger, most of which goes to pay the pension of Alitalia pilots.
You couldn’t make it up! And yet, nobody will shout ‘Stop!’ We are 20 years
into the single European sky, and we’re making no progress whatsoever, yet Jose
Manuel Barroso is here bullshitting away for a couple of hours. What has he
done in 10 years for the single European sky? Nothing!
“So every time we get a platform, we should expose how
incompetent they are and the amount of damage they visit on tourism, because
tourism is the one industry in Europe that can create jobs, and the fact that
the politicians don’t get it is something we need to keep holding them to
account for.”
Sackur: “I’ve never before actually seen a human being
explode from indignation, but I think that might happen before the end of this
session. Let’s talk about demographics. Germany has 80 million people today. In
a generation, it’ll be down to 60 million, possibly 50 million. Does that
concern you?”
O’Leary: “I ignore demographic trends because almost every
demographic forecast has always been wrong. If the German population falls from
80 [million] to 50 [million] in the next 20 years, I’m sure 30 million Turks
and Irish will flood into Germany to make up the numbers. We’re the most
optimistic company around. We’ve ordered almost 400 new aircraft over the next
eight years. But, we have to be continually conscious of how that growth will
be derailed by stupid politicians taxing tourism, raising bogus barriers and
reducing the competitiveness of European tourism.”
Sackur: “But you obviously don’t believe the politicians are
going to screw this up so massively or you wouldn’t be making this massive
investment in aircraft.”
O’Leary: “Politicians will continue to try to screw it up,
but business leaders like Ryanair will continue to move faster than politicians
can think — which, mind you, isn’t setting the bar very high.”