DUBLIN -Michael O'Leary will leave the company in 2008

[White Cap]

Source:The Globe and Mail
By DARA DOYLE

Monday, November 21, 2005

DUBLIN -- Michael O'Leary, the tax consultant who built Ryanair Holdings PLC into Europe's biggest discount airline, will leave the company in 2008.

Mr. O'Leary, 44, is Ryanair's biggest individual investor, with 35 million shares, a stake valued at €258-million ($304-million U.S.). Founded in 1985 with one 15-seat plane, Dublin-based Ryanair for the first time in August carried more passengers than British Airways PLC. Mr. O'Leary joined the company in 1988 from KPMG.

The executive has "signalled this for some time," said Pauline McAlester, a spokeswoman for the company at public relations firm Murray Consultants, confirming a report in yesterday's Irish edition of The Sunday Times of London.

During his oversight, Ryanair became the world's third-largest airline when ranked by market value, behind only Southwest Airlines Co. of Dallas and Singapore Airlines Ltd.

Since 1998, Ryanair shares have returned an average 25 per cent a year to investors, compared with a 1.8-per-cent annual loss at British Airways and a 3.8-per-cent drop at Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

The stock has risen more than 40 per cent this year, valuing Ryanair at €5.58-billion.

A departure in 2008 would come at the same time as the arrival of a round of new airplanes that are planned to expand service. Ryanair in February ordered 70 Boeing Co. single-aisle jets worth more than $4-billion to double its passenger capacity by 2012. Deliveries start in 2008.

Some 12 years ago, when Mr. O'Leary was asked to head the unprofitable local airline, he said it should be shut down. He changed his mind after flying to Dallas to pick Herb Kelleher's brain on how he built Southwest into the world's largest low-fare carrier.

The lessons that Mr. O'Leary took home with him: A quick turnaround for aircraft between each flight. Also, instead of filling a plane 60 per cent at high fares, Southwest flights were 80-per-cent or 90-per-cent full at low fares and making money.

"I saw it with my own eyes and said, 'We can do this in Europe,' " Mr. O'Leary said in 2003.

© The Globe and Mail

[herm]

Hallo, hier ein kleiner Text zum Thema in Deutsch:

Ryanair-Chef O’Leary will die Airline 2008 verlassen

Der Chief Executive Officer der irischen Billigfluglinie Ryanair will in 3 Jahren seinen Hut nehmen. Im Jahr 2008 will Michael O’Leary das Unternehmen verlassen. Einen Wechsel in den Aufsichtsrat schloss er kategorisch aus.

"Ich denke, es ist eines der schlimmsten Dinge, die man tun kann. Man muss komplett raus, andernfalls wäre man wie ein auf den Korridoren herumirrendes Gespenst", sagte O’Leary der englischen "Sunday Times". Ryanair bräuchte keinen "tatterigen, alten Sack".

Die "Sunday Times" befürchtet, diese Entscheidung werde einen Schock an der Börse auslösen. Einige Investoren befürchten, dass Ryanair ohne O’Leary an der Spitze eine Airline wie jede andere werde. O’Leary widerspricht dem: "Die besten Firmen, die über lange Zeit bestand haben, sind die, die alte Typen abschießen können. Alte Leute gehen, und werden nicht in den Aufsichtsrat befördert."

O’Leary hat durch ungewöhnliche Aktionen immer wieder auf seine Fluggesellschaft aufmerksam gemacht. Gegen easyJet war er am Flughafen London-Luton "in den Krieg" gezogen und mit einem Panzer vorgefahren. In der Düsseldorfer Altstadt demonstrierte er für das Recht auf Meinungsfreiheit. Berichten zu Folge hat O’Leary sogar einen Taxi-Schein in Dublin – um dort auch die Bus-Fahrspuren nutzen zu dürfen.
(Quelle: flightmag)

Bin mal gespannt wie es dann weiter geht ohne den "irren Iren "