Ryanair, the deep-discount air carrier was in the news late last week. However, the publicity was not what the airline was probably looking for. The airline’s CEO Michael O’Leary called his customers idiots. The airline’s number one man in charge could be the first CEO to express himself that way, but certainly is not the first that felt that way.
The chief of Ryanair was referring to passengers on his airline who did not print their boarding passes before arriving to check in at the airport. The passengers therefore were charged $75 per boarding pass to have the airline print one for them.
The issue came to a head last week. A mother and four members of her family had to pay $380 to have boarding passes printed by Ryanair so they could board their flight and return to England from Spain where they had vacationed. After the mother returned home, she voiced her disagreement with what took place on her Facebook page. Within a short period of time, she received thousands of likes regarding her post.
The Ryanair CEO responded to her post on Facebook by saying the woman should have to pay the fee due to being stupid. He also made sarcastic comments, such as he was certain she could not find an internet cafe that would print the boarding passes or a hotel in all of Spain that would do the same.
A few days after his original comments, O’Leary changed his attitude somewhat by saying his comments were not meant to be aimed directly at the mother, but rather at that airlines’ customers in general. He did not mean to call her stupid, but rather all the airlines’ passengers were stupid for thinking they were not going to have to pay fees or follow policies.
