Words from O'Leary

Addressing the Shannon Chamber of Commerce lunch on Thursday last, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said that Ryanair's proposed take over of Aer Lingus is the "best opportunity to guarantee long term competition" between Aer Lingus and his airline. He suggested that if the Ryanair proposal fails to succeed then Aer Lingus' future will be as a "peripheral loss making airline that is going to stumble along from crisis to crisis." Should the proposal succeed, Mr. O'Leary has vowed to sack the board of Aer Lingus. He has offered Aer Lingus Chairman Colm Barrington a seat on the Ryanair board but he has made it clear that he has no need of any of the other Aer Lingus directors. "They'll all be gone. If you look at the board of Aer Lingus, with a number of notable exceptions, the rest are like the board of bloody FAS (Irish State training agency). They're all Bertie's pals or political appointees or trade union representatives." Summing up in the usual O'Leary colourful style, he says that the board should be "taken out and shot".