Ryanair's Michael O'Leary Blasts Customer For Being 'Bloody English'

Ryanair Boss Blasts The 'Bloody English'

A Ryanair customer who complained about the fine she was issued with when she couldn't print off her boarding card was lambasted for being "bloody English" by the air carrier's controversial boss Michael O'Leary.

Speaking on BBC Five Live on Wednesday, O'Leary was challenged over his response to a customer who said she was unable to find a printer in Alicante to print off her return boarding card.

He told Five Live's listeners: "If you show up at the airport and agree to print your boarding card, as Mrs McLeod did for her outbound flight to Alicante, and then come up with some cock and bull story that she was 'out of the way'... I don't believe that she couldn't get to a printer as...she'd printed off her boarding pass for the outbound flight.

"I have no problem with people who don't want to obey the rules, but it really is a bit bloody English to write in afterwards, having paid the fine, and say can I please have a refund."

O'Leary also confirmed he printed off his own boarding cards as he didn't "have any lackeys" to do it for him, and had never exceeded the bag weight.

Ryanair also experienced some positive headlines on 31 October after it announced it would create 1,000 UK jobs next year by flying one million more passengers on a number of new routes.

Nine new routes were announced for its three airports in the north-west of England - Manchester, Liverpool and East Midlands, five from Manchester (to Corfu, Krakow, Lanzarote, Paphos and Trapani), two from Liverpool (to Lublin and Zadar) and two from East Midlands (to Marseille and Menorca).

The expansion is in spite of what O'Leary called a "difficult winter" as austerity measures and the eurozone crisis hit demand.

Ryanair reported a 29% slide in underlying pre-tax profits to £77.5 million in the quarter to 30 June, as a 27% surge in fuel costs took its toll.

Its ongoing attempt to takeover Irish rival Aer Lingus continues too, with new concessions offered by Ryanair in a bid to win approval from the regulators.

The airline said it would move some of Aer Lingus's planes to continental Europe to operate non-Irish routes to allay concerns about a near monopoly in the domestic market, and would scrap some of its own routes from Ireland to persuade regulators to drop a previous merger rejection.

Ryanair had an initial bid turned down by the commission in 2007 and dropped a second offer in 2009.

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