"While O'Leary may get a kick out of being the bad guy from time to time, he makes no excuses for his laser-like focus on costs. Quite simply this is what makes Ryanair stand out from virtually every other airline worldwide. At its interim results event Ryanair said it had cut its unit costs excluding fuel by 5% for the six months to the end of September. More tellingly, Ryanair figures show that its unit cost gap compared with budget rival easyJet is a staggering €23. Add another €33 and you arrive at the unit cost of Aer Lingus.
Never expect O'Leary or Ryanair to relent one bit on costs. As one former senior Ryanair manager told Airline Business: 'Michael would rather get a guaranteed €1 million of cost savings over the chance of potentially gaining €10 million of revenue.'
O'Leary's aggressive approach pervades Ryanair. Deputy chief executives Howard Millar and Michael Crawley are definitely not Michael O'Leary clones, but they have become empowered to exhibit plenty of his qualities. And the arrogance that comes with being big and strong, as well as committed to a simple vision of delivering low fares, goes deep into the airline's physche."
Profile: The Gospel according to Michael O'Leary
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