Ryanair boss O'Leary defends 'high-fare rapists' airlines remarks - BBC News
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Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary has refused to apologise to a rape crisis centre which criticised him for describing rival airlines as "high-fare rapists".
Speaking to journalists, O'Leary said some people were "desperate to get to Ryanair's low fares because they can't afford to fly with the high-fare rapists around Europe".
O'Leary doubled-down on his choice of words when asked about them at the time, and later refused to apologise when the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) wrote to him asking for apology.
Ireland's deputy premier Simon Harris said it was "clearly an inappropriate use of language" and that O'Leary "should have moved to rectify it".
"British Airways, Lufthansa, and everybody else's high fares, I'll happily offend them on a regular basis," O'Leary told journalists.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told UK radio outlet LBC that victims of rape are "not going to be rushing to book tickets with him, let's be honest".
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Related topics:
- Companies
- Air travel
- Ryanair
- Sexual violence
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