MOL said ...

A few of Michaël O'Leary sayings, most of them already well known, but fun to read once more ! (my prefered : "I'm not a cloud bunny , I'm not an aerosexual, I never wanted to be a pilot like ...!" )

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jun/29/ryanair.theairlineindustry

When O'Leary lived up to his name ...

• Daisy Ayliffe
  
• The Guardian,
  
• Thursday June 5, 2008
  

I filmed Tuesday's Ryanair press conference for the Press Association in something of a fluster. My dilapidated and wonky tripod was giving viewers the false impression that Ryanair's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, had presented his company's annual results on a hill. I was also pressed for time. So just half an hour in, I had to leave the press conference early.
I clambered across the floor on all fours to retrieve my microphone, trying desperately not to interrupt those journalists still at work. O'Leary was mid-sentence but he stopped what he was saying when he saw me. The combination of a woman, on all floors and in a skirt had proved too much for him. "If you want to stay on your knees, by all means, I'd encourage you," he said in front of the gathered, mostly male, journalists. "Sorry, I've forgotten the question ... There was a very pretty girl on her knees there in front of me."
That O'Leary should have taken time out from delivering his annual results for such a coarse interlude will come as little surprise to those who take a passing interest in the workings of his company. Ryanair's 2008 charity calendar shows its air hostesses stripped of their uniforms, posing provocatively in skimpy bikinis. Earlier this year a Ryanair advert was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority on the grounds that it would be likely to cause offence. The ASA ruled that the image of a bare-midriffed "schoolgirl" in a miniskirt linked teenage girls with sexually provocative behaviour. Ryanair scoffed at the suggestion, arguing that the model's outfit was representative of today's fashions.
I would like to think that the outfit I wore to the press conference was also representative of today's fashions (perhaps not the bobbly grey tights), but that did not stop O'Leary's lewd comments. Then again, since Ryanair is presided over by a man who takes pride in being brash and unreconstructed, it is unsurprising that its advertisements and branding should be the same

Amazing what journalists permit themselves at a press conference : they don't listen, they joke between them, they don't care at all, they arrive late, depart early ...
This woman chose to depart in the middle of the event, not by tiptoeing out, but putting his behind under O'Leary nose. She was looking for trouble and she got it.
And she was lucky : he could have said more plainly what he thought, i.e. : you are a very rude and bad mannered person.
Even this obvious message she was apparently unable to grasp - you don't have to be very sharp to be a journalist !