{"id":508132,"date":"2026-06-19T15:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/508132\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T15:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:38:09","slug":"michael-oleary-agrees-to-extend-ryanair-contract-into-his-70s-with-potential-e153m-pay-day-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/508132\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael O\u2019Leary agrees to extend Ryanair contract into his 70s with potential \u20ac153m pay-day \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael O\u2019Leary<\/a> has agreed to extend his contract with Ryanair <\/a>by a further four years to 2032, in a deal that could net him \u20ac153 million by way of a stock options plan. <\/p>\n

The budget carrier said the new contract with its chief executive will run until April 2032, within weeks of him turning 71, with the deal having been agreed following \u201cmonths of discussion\u201d with O\u2019Leary and \u201cextensive engagement with the group\u2019s largest shareholders\u201d. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary is now 65. His current contract runs out in 2028. <\/p>\n

The new contract includes a \u201cmodest annual salary and a capped annual bonus\u201d, the group said in a statement. He has been on an annual salary of \u20ac1.2 million and is entitled to a maximum bonus equating to 50 per cent of his base pay since 2024. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary, who has led Ryanair since 1994, also qualifies for a new one-off purchase option over 10 million shares in Ryanair under the new deal. Subject to O\u2019Leary remaining in employment with the group until April 2032, he will be able to buy the shares at a price of \u20ac26.70 \u2013 the level at which the shares were trading before the war in Iran \u2013 if the share price exceeds \u20ac42 for 28 consecutive days until the end of March 2032. <\/p>\n

The awards are exercisable if Ryanair\u2019s annual net profit breaches the \u20ac4 billion level. Its profit for the year to March amounted to \u20ac2.26 billion. <\/p>\n

The share awards would be worth \u20ac153 million upon Ryanair\u2019s stock hitting the \u20ac42 per share level. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Michael O\u2019Leary\u2019s contradictions could fill an aircraft hangar. It\u2019s time we called them outOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cAs previously announced, this spring the board commenced discussions with MOL on his contract,\u201d said Ryanair chairman Stan McCarthy (MOL stands for Michael O\u2019Leary). <\/p>\n

\u201cI am pleased to report that this process, which included extensive engagement with Ryanair\u2019s largest shareholders, has successfully concluded with Michael agreeing to extend his leadership of the Ryanair Group for the next six years to April 2032, for the benefit of all shareholders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fresh contract comes a year after O\u2019Leary qualified for share options worth about a net \u20ac100 million to him at the time, after the airline\u2019s shares hit a key performance target.<\/p>\n

Shares closed at more than \u20ac21 for a 28th consecutive day in May 2025, meeting one of two conditions attached to O\u2019Leary\u2019s bumper pay deal. The executive will have to stay at Ryanair until the end of July 2028 to collect the share options.<\/p>\n

With Ryanair\u2019s shares changing hands at about \u20ac25.75 on Friday, having rallied more than 8 per cent this week after the US and Iran a peace plan, the net value of that options plan is also currently worth close to \u20ac150 million. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary had almost 44.1 million shares in Ryanair in March 2025, according to the carrier\u2019s most recent annual report. He raised more than \u20ac45 million last summer selling off almost 1.9 million of those shares. <\/p>\n

His remaining holding is worth more than \u20ac1 billion. This excludes any impact from the two major stock options packages. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael O\u2019Leary has agreed to extend his contract with Ryanair by a further four years to 2032, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,10726,1899],"class_list":["post-508132","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\/508132","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=508132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}