At some airlines, executive leadership changes within months. But if negotiations over the future of Michael O’Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, are successfully concluded, he will have completed nearly four decades at the helm of the company.
The results of Ryanair for the financial year ending in March reveal that negotiations are underway with the controversial chief executive, Michael O’Leary, regarding “the extension of his employment contract with the Group” until April 2032, when he will be 71 years old.
The news emerged when Ryanair announced today a 40% increase in after-tax profits to €2.26 billion (£1.97 billion), equivalent to £9.50 per passenger.
Mr. Michael O’Leary’s current contract expires in 2028. The negotiations are focused on an option to purchase 10 million shares in the Irish airline group.
The statement by Ryanair, in which the airline’s chief executive is referred to as “MOL,” states: “These discussions are nearing completion, and engagement with the Group’s largest institutional shareholders will begin in the coming days.”
“Under the proposed new contract, MOL will have the right to purchase more than 10 million shares, which will be traded at the market price (before the recent decline related to the war in Iran), but (similar to the grant he received in 2019) these options may be exercised only if very ambitious targets for after-tax profits or share price growth are achieved, thereby creating substantial value for all shareholders,” the statement said. It concluded: “A further update will be provided in due course.”
Mr. Michael O’Leary became deputy chief executive in 1991. At the time, as he later told The Independent, Ryanair “was on the verge of bankruptcy.” “In the spring of 1991, I thought it would be a miracle if we were still operating three months later,” he said.
After engineering a remarkable turnaround, Michael O’Leary became chief executive in 1994, marking the beginning of the transformation of the small Irish airline into Europe’s largest carrier in terms of annual passenger numbers. During the last financial year, Ryanair carried 208.4 million passengers, an average of 571,000 passengers per day.
Ryanair is also the safest airline in the world based on the number of passengers it carries.
Ryanair’s market capitalization currently stands at £20.7 billion.
