{"id":621283,"date":"2026-09-11T10:02:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T10:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621283\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T10:02:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T10:02:22","slug":"ryanair-investors-revolt-over-oleary-pay-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621283\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryanair investors revolt over O\u2019Leary pay \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryanair <\/a>has suffered a significant shareholder revolt over a pay deal that could yield a \u20ac150 million payout for its boss Michael O\u2019Leary<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The budget airline\u2019s investors voted by about two-to-one in favour of a new contract that runs from 2028 to 2032, O\u2019Leary said on Thursday ahead of the carrier\u2019s annual meeting in Dublin. <\/p>\n

In results published after the agm had concluded, Ryanair said of the shares cast, just 60.7 per cent voted for the pay package with 39.3 per cent voting against. <\/p>\n

Under the deal, struck over the summer and designed to keep O\u2019Leary at the airline, he would receive an option to buy 10 million shares, which could net him at least \u20ac150 million.<\/p>\n

The package was devised to replace O\u2019Leary\u2019s current pay arrangement, under which he stands to gain up to \u20ac100 million in return for doubling the carrier\u2019s post-tax earnings or overseeing a share price rise of 80 per cent. That deal, unveiled in 2019, also suffered pushback, with almost half of Ryanair\u2019s investors refusing to back the deal.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary has repeatedly defended his remuneration packages, saying he is paid a modest basic salary and only receives significant sums if the airline hits stretching financial performance targets. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we hit the targets the shareholders will be thrilled with themselves,\u201d he said earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Under the latest deal, the long-time Ryanair chief will be able to exercise his options if the share price hits \u20ac42 \u2013 a rise of two-thirds on the current price \u2013 or if the company\u2019s post-tax profits rise by about 75 per cent to \u20ac4 billion.<\/p>\n

While a significant number of investors refused to back the deal, others defended the arrangement.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael O\u2019Leary is one of Europe\u2019s very best CEOs … and has provided great long-term investment returns to shareholders,\u201d said Andrew Hollingworth at VT Holland Advisors equity fund, an investor in the airline. \u201cInvestors should welcome an aligned incentive package that will keep him at the airline for another six years.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary has grown Ryanair into the largest carrier in Europe and become one of the most profitable airlines in the industry. Shares have fallen about a quarter this year, with the Iran conflict dragging global airline stocks lower.<\/p>\n

The outspoken executive said previously that his next contract will be his last before he hands over to a \u201cnicer\u201d successor.<\/p>\n

He became embroiled in a public spat with Elon Musk in January after he ruled out adding Starlink internet to the airline\u2019s planes, with the Tesla boss asking his social media followers at one point whether he should mount a takeover of the carrier.<\/p>\n

In advance of the agm he described some rival airlines as \u201chigh-fare rapists,\u201d drawing criticism from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, among others. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryanair has suffered a significant shareholder revolt over a pay deal that could yield a \u20ac150 million payout…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,10726,1899],"class_list":["post-621283","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\/621283","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=621283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}