Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary believes a lot of controversial things and says them. I’ve often been skeptical that he even believes what he says – whenever he’s been out of the news for awhile he’ll talk about making customers of the European low cost carrier pay to use the lavatory, which I guess he believes entrenches the belief in customers’ minds that his airline is cheap.

However in a new interview he made made several claims only a couple of which are clearly self-serving.

1. Since flight attendants are “sexually athletic” his airline won’t stand in the way of workplace romance.

2. The U.K. will eventually reverse Brexit and re-join the E.U.

3. “Most airport security is utterly useless. It is only designed so that politicians can convey the impression that they are doing something.” (On this he’s largely correct.)

4. His preferred approach to airport security is to profile Muslim males.

   “Who are the bombers?” O’Leary asks. “They are going to be single males travelling on their own. If you are travelling with a family of kids, on you go; the chances you are going to blow them all up is f***ing zero. You can’t say stuff, because it’s racism, but it will generally be males of a Muslim persuasion.”

5. He thinks Greta Thunberg is a dangerous hypocrite,
   

   “… all the abuse (on environmental matters) goes to the airlines because some 17-year-old Swedish girl goes, ‘Oh, we shouldn’t be flying.’ It’s OK for her, she can get a racing yacht across the Atlantic with a crew who flew to pick her up.”

6. Like another CEO of an airline that doesn’t have business class, he wants to ban business class ‘for the environment – “We should all fly more densely so at least when we are flying, we are doing it reasonably efficiently.”

7. Since Ryanair’s solution to everything is low fares, he believes discounts to fly the Boeing 737 MAX are what will restore confidence in the aircraft (in contrast American Airlines CEO Doug Parker believes discounts suggest they lack confidence in the plane).

8. Emotional support animals are “complete nonsense.”

Copyright: trevorbenbrook / 123RF Stock Photo

I view his claims about Ryanair flight attendants and the need to ban business class to be self-serving, the latter may be obvious but can you figure out why I say that about the former?

O’Leary by the way acknowledges he should stay away from social media.