Television reviw
RTÉ’s ‘Turbulence: The Story of Ryanair’ charts the rise of the budget airline
Ryanair was founded in 1984. In those early days, it wasn’t even called Ryanair. It was Danren Enterprises, possibly the dullest name ever for an airline.
Michael O’Leary himself didn’t join the company until 1988, and didn’t take over as CEO until 1994. RTE’s new two-part documentary Turbulence: The Story of Ryanair (RTÉ One, Monday, 9.30pm) made the wise decision, however, to begin its tale of “how a brash, scrappy Irish airline became a giant in global aviation” with a montage of O’Leary saying madcap things, because that’s what the company soon became best known for.