Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary declares passenger an 'idiot' after her complaint goes viral

Airline boss swipes at disgruntled passenger

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Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair

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The CEO of Ryanair has labeled passengers who fail to print their boarding cards as “idiots”.

Michael O’Leary made the comments after a British passenger complained on Facebook after the airline charged her €300 ($374) to print out five boarding passes before a flight from Alicante in Spain to Bristol.

Suzy McLeod got the backing of more than half a million Facebook users when she posted on Ryanair’s page on the social networking site: “I had previously checked in online but because I hadn't printed out the boarding passes, Ryanair charged me €60 per person! Meaning I had to pay €300 for them to print out a piece of paper! Please ‘like’ if you think that's unfair.”

Despite getting the support of fellow passengers, O’Leary has branded the mother of two as “stupid” for failing to print off the necessary documents.

READ MORE: Ryanair passenger’s complaint on Facebook gets support of 350,000 fellow users

“We think Mrs McLeod should pay €60 for being so stupid,” he said. “She wasn’t able to print her boarding card because, as you know, there are no internet cafes in Alicante, no hotels where they could print them out for you, and you couldn’t get to a fax machine so some friend at home can print them and fax them to you.”

“She wrote to me last week asking for compensation and a gesture of goodwill. To which we have replied, politely but firmly, thank you Mrs McLeod but it was your ****-up.”

The airline owner claimed that 99.98 percent of Ryanair passengers print their boarding cards prior ahead of their flights.

“To those who don't, we say quite politely: ‘B***** off’”. 

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