Ryanair‘s chief executive Michael O’Leary has refused to apologise over his Michael O’Leary rape remarks, after the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre wrote to him directly asking him to do so and two senior politicians called the language unacceptable.
O’Leary made the comments while speaking to journalists ahead of Ryanair’s annual shareholder meeting. He described rival airlines as ‘high-fare rapists’, saying some passengers were ‘desperate to get to Ryanair’s low fares because they can’t afford to fly with the high-fare rapists around Europe’. When a reporter from the Press Association asked whether that language was appropriate, O’Leary replied: ‘Absolutely.’
He went on to name British Airways and Lufthansa among the airlines he was referring to, saying he would ‘happily offend them on a regular basis’. Asked whether his words might offend victims of sexual assault, he said rape was ‘a terrible crime’.
Crisis centre writes to O’Leary over rape remarks
Rachel Morrogh, chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC), wrote to O’Leary after his comments were reported. In her letter, seen by the BBC, she accused him of making the remarks to generate headlines and said the DRCC had received calls from rape victims who were ‘upset and distressed because of what you said’.
Morrogh offered O’Leary training on the impact of sexual violence and urged him to apologise. ‘I can’t imagine you would ever use the term so flippantly again if you truly understood [what] it was like to survive rape,’ she wrote.
O’Leary’s written response was unequivocal. ‘I am quite clear that no remarks of mine could possibly trivialise the heinous crime of rape,’ he said, adding that because he had not ‘trivialised the heinous crime of rape’ he would ‘not be issuing any apology or accepting your offer of training’.
Politicians add their voices to the criticism
The controversy drew reactions from politicians on both sides of the Irish Sea. Ireland’s deputy premier Simon Harris said the language was ‘clearly an inappropriate use of language’ and that O’Leary ‘should have moved to rectify it’. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told LBC that victims of rape are ‘not going to be rushing to book tickets with him, let’s be honest’.
Neither Harris nor Alexander indicated that any formal or regulatory action was being considered, but the public nature of their criticism added political pressure to an already heated controversy.
A pattern of provocative language
This is not the first time O’Leary has attracted widespread criticism for the way he speaks about his business and its rivals. In 2004, he reportedly described the owners of Stansted Airport as ‘a bunch of overcharging rapists’ during a dispute over airport charges. On separate occasions, he has called some members of his own staff ‘lazy bastards’ and told passengers seeking refunds that Ryanair did not want to hear their ‘sob stories’.
Each episode has generated controversy and, each time, O’Leary has declined to pull back from his remarks. His position has consistently been that blunt language is part of how he does business, and that his real target is the pricing practices of larger rivals rather than any individuals or groups.
Ryanair has been in the news on other fronts recently too. In June, O’Leary said the airline would ‘reluctantly’ stop charging parents to sit next to their children after a watchdog investigation was opened, though he insisted the previous policy had complied with the law. The airline has also been dealing with a separate incident involving a broken window on one of its aircraft, which it said may have been caused by a ‘foreign object’.
The DRCC’s letter requesting an apology and O’Leary’s written refusal to provide one mark a direct, documented exchange between the airline’s chief executive and a rape crisis organisation, something that goes beyond the usual cycle of a controversial quote and subsequent media criticism. Morrogh’s offer of training was explicitly declined, and O’Leary’s position, as stated in his reply, is that his original words require no correction.
