Ryanair to give away 1.1m seats after Panorama program

Before the BBC aired last night's Panorama edition titled "Why hate Ryanair?", the carrier vowed to give away 100,000 free seats for every false claim made in the "hatchet job investigation". As Ryanair put it "These free seats will allow hard pressed BBC licence payers to escape from Panorama’s false claims, shoddy reporting and cover ups."
Today Ryanair honored the commitment by releasing 1.1m free seats on the basis of eleven false or misleading claims which it says that the BBC aired on the program, including the last claim :


" 11. Panorama claimed that “O’Leary is a bully” – this is clearly false when the whole world knows that O’Leary is a kind and gentle, caring and thoughtful, sensitive and saintly human being widely beloved by all Ryanair’s 6,500 people and its 66m passengers."


It must be said that none of the claims made in the program against the airline were particularly malicious in intent, for the most part concentrating on the consumer side of the experience. It was not so much a 'hatchet job' as being mugged by a teddy bear - the program didn't even cut Michael O'Leary's opportunistic commercial for Ryanair when he was doorstopped by reporter Vivian White leaving the airline's recent AGM. All in it was yet another publicity coup for the carrier. Had Ryanair spent any money on it it would have been well spent !

Ryanair tackle 'Panormama' head on

"It's more like Bananarama than Panorma", so said Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary this evening, referring to the BBC's flagship current affairs program in advance of tonight's edition titled "Why hate Ryanair ?". O'Leary was speaking on RTE Radio One's "Drivetime" program which featured an item about the ongoing spat between the airline and the BBC. The "Bananarama" comment was made in relation to what Michael O'Leary ascertains is going to be a hatchet job by the broadcaster which he says can drag up little more than two untrue statements in relation to the airline's costings and it's past dealings with Airbus. As further proof of the hatchet job, O'Leary went on to add that the program makers had refused to agree to his request for either a live interview or to broadcast an unedited interview. 
The "Panorama" reporter Vivian White was also interviewed on the "Drivetime" program. He stated that the BBC could not agree to an unedited interview being shown as part of the program as this would have constituted the broadcaster ceding editorial control to Ryanair, something which it was not prepared to do. Mr. White said that he would be happy to have the program judged by what it contains, adding that he had no complaint about the way that Ryanair had dealt with the BBC. 
As the discussion progressed the listener was left wondering if it all wasn't just a case of the battle of the brands with both parties stirring it up for all it was worth. 
The last laugh may well be Ryanair's - for a company which doesn't differentiate between good and bad publicity, tonight's program is 30 minutes of free TV advertising funded by the British TV licence payer and shown on the commercial free BBC !