Friendly face a huge success for Ryanair, says Michael O’Leary

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary admits the airline would have ditched its cold and inflexible approach years ago if they had realised the positive spin-offs.

Ryanair expects to carry 100m passengers in its current financial year, with Mr O’Leary admitting: “We’ve moved from being cheap and nasty to cheap and cheerful.”

Mr O’Leary says he has backed up the softer strategy with a passenger charter, adding: “If I’d known it would work so well, I’d have done it years ago.”