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 !