{"id":190201,"date":"2025-12-13T19:11:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T19:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/190201\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T19:11:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T19:11:06","slug":"ryanair-chief-michael-oleary-plans-to-hand-over-to-nicer-successor-by-2035-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/190201\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryanair chief Michael O\u2019Leary plans to hand over to \u2018nicer\u2019 successor by 2035 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryanair<\/a>\u2019s Michael O\u2019Leary<\/a> has given a timetable for his departure, with the famously foul-mouthed airline boss planning to hand over to a \u201cnicer\u201d successor by 2035.<\/p>\n

The 64-year-old was in talks to extend his contract for \u201cthree to five years\u201d beyond its current end in 2028, he told the Financial Times. Mr O\u2019Leary\u2019s existing \u201cgolden handcuffs\u201d deal promises a \u20ac100 million payout if he hits certain targets.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Leary said he should finally head for the exit in \u201cfive to 10 years\u201d, adding: \u201cI don\u2019t want to hang around till 96 like [Warren] Buffett<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he has speculated before about retirement \u2013 quipping he wanted to stay working until the last of his teenage children had left for university in 2029 \u2013 this is the first time Mr O\u2019Leary has laid out a detailed timetable for his departure.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy contract runs out in \u201928,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re in talks at the moment about extending that. In \u201928 I\u2019ll be 67. I can\u2019t see any reason not to do another three- to five-year period of time, but to my mind, I suspect we\u2019re coming to the end of it at that stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Leary added: \u201cIn an ideal world, we would have a modest interregnum\u2009… You would announce this is the next group CEO, and I would stay around for two years to train them up. <\/p>\n

\u201cTaking me out at some point in the next five to 10 years would give Ryanair the opportunity to be a little bit softer and a little bit nicer,\u201d he said. \u201cRyanair would be better off if they didn\u2019t have someone who was always shouting and swearing and actively lighting fires.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not clear that O\u2019Leary believes a diplomatic approach is better. Only last month, during the company\u2019s earnings call, he laid into \u201cbullshit regulations invented by idiots in the European Parliament\u201d and UK chancellor Rachel Reeves for \u201ctaxing the shit out of everything that moves\u201d.<\/p>\n

His publicity-seeking comments have allowed the company to generate headlines while keeping marketing costs low, such as the 2009 suggestion that Ryanair could start charging passengers to use toilets.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Leary joined Ryanair in the late 1980s to work for founder Tony Ryan, and rose to become chief executive in 1994. <\/p>\n

During his tenure, Ryanair has grown to become Europe\u2019s largest airline, carrying more than 200 million passengers a year across the region and north Africa. <\/p>\n

He oversaw much of the business before taking on the company\u2019s official leadership, and has been instrumental in shaping its culture, especially its \u201cmaniacal\u201d focus on costs, and knack of attracting media coverage. <\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Leary\u2019s original model for casting Ryanair as a zero-frills carrier, closer to a coach service than a traditional airline, stems from Southwest Airlines in the US. Its former chief Herb Kelleher ran the business until he was 70. <\/p>\n

On earnings calls, Mr O\u2019Leary has begun talking up the potential of other managers in the business to reassure investors that Ryanair has a strong bench of potential replacements.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuccession is always a risk,\u201d he told the FT. \u201cThere\u2019s no point in pretending otherwise. If I take the top tier of management, we\u2019re all in our early 60s. We have the second tier of management in their early to mid 40s.\u201d <\/p>\n

Some of the senior leaders \u201cmay say they have had enough in \u201928. By the time the second tier are in their mid 40s to early 50s, that\u2019s when they should be taking over.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIf I were to die tomorrow \u2013 and we\u2019ve had this discussion on the board \u2013 the senior team can clearly mind the business for the next year or so, but the next level down, who are in their early to mid 40s, they don\u2019t know any other way to run a business.\u201d \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryanair\u2019s Michael O\u2019Leary has given a timetable for his departure, with the famously foul-mouthed airline boss planning to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,10726,1899],"class_list":["post-190201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-michael-oleary","tag-ryanair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}