Irish Examiner View: Ryanair’s screw-up reflects badly on the company

Ryanair does not have to pick silly or unnecessary arguments, much less tell editors who they can, or cannot, send to cover proceedings.

CEO Michael O’Leary admitted that the decision to freeze out the press from the Ryanair AGM was a 'screw-up'. Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

While we are talking about artificial intelligence, it would be helpful if Ryanair’s comms teams showed nous, or cop-on of any description, the next time they consider banning journalists from the company’s annual meeting.

This week’s fiasco which saw business reporters excluded from a meeting to which they had been invited, and specifically barred a journalist from the Irish Independent from anything at all, was a tinpot piece of administration which reflects badly on a company which, unlike many rivals, has emerged strongly from the pandemic. 

An enterprise which carried 16.9m passengers in August and returned €170m in profits after tax in the three months to the end of June does not have to pick silly or unnecessary arguments, much less tell editors who they can, or cannot, send to cover proceedings.

According to Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, who is now predicted to extend his tenure to 2028, the decision to freeze out the press was a “screw-up” and he committed to ensure that it would not happen again.

The moment that corporations, and indeed governments, start to decide who is permitted to ask questions at meetings which take place in the interests of free and open communications to the public, shareholders, and potential investors, is the start of the slide into totalitarianism and autocracy. 

We are entitled to expect better of Ryanair, a company which has much to be proud about in its performance in the troubled world of aviation.

And we are sure that, with mature reflection, its executives must reach the same conclusion.