Ryanair's Irish business being hampered 'by failed regulation and political inaction', says Michael O'Leary

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

Ryanair chief executive, Michael O'Leary, has stated that the airline's home market in Dublin is being hampered "by failed regulation and political inaction'.
Mr O'Leary makes his comments in Ryanair's 2025 annual report which reveals that this year Mr O'Leary received a remuneration package of €3.83m that included bonus payments of €600,000.
The report shows that in the 12 months to the end of March this year, Mr O'Leary received the maximum bonus possible of €600,000 or 50% of basic pay under his contract as Ryanair recorded pre-tax profits of €1.78bn on the back of revenues climbing to €13.94bn.
The airline achieved the revenues as passenger numbers increased by 9% to a record 200 million for the first time. Mr O'Leary's pay package was made up of basic pay of €1.2m, a bonus payment of €600,000 and share options of €2.03m.
A note attached to the accounts states that the €2.03m component is through the company recording a technical non-cash accounting charge in relation to share options granted to Mr O'Leary. The note states that no such payment was made to Mr O'Leary and the share options remain unvested.
At the end of May, Mr O'Leary qualified for share options worth more than €100m as part of a bonus scheme and the 64-year-old will have to stay at Ryanair until the end of July 2028 to collect them.
The annual report shows that, while overall Ryanair revenues increased by €505m or 3.75% to €13.94bn, its Irish revenues contracted by 4% from €791m to €757.5m.
The airline's Irish business accounted for 5.4% of overall revenues as Italy was the airline's most lucrative market at €2.96bn, followed by Spain at €2.47bn and UK revenues at 2.04bn.
Dublin Airport
In his message to shareholders, Mr O'Leary said that the home market in Dublin is being 'hampered by failed regulation and political inaction'.
He said that at Dublin Airport over €320m has been invested in a new second runway, which doubles the capacity from 32 million to over 60 million passengers per annum.
He said that "Dublin's airlines are prevented from using this growth capacity, because an 18-year-old planning restriction artificially caps Dublin Airport traffic at 32 million per annum over fears (in 2007), that road access around Dublin Airport would be 'overwhelmed' at this volume of passengers".
He said that Ireland's newly elected Government 'committed to removing this outdated traffic cap, yet three months later no action has been taken'.
He said:
Only in Ireland would we allow this vital access infrastructure to be built, but then refuse our airlines and citizens the ability to use it, due to bureaucratic failure to abolish an absurd and outdated planning restriction.
"This is a clear example of the sort of regulatory failure, which the Draghi Report has encouraged Europe to reform and remove.'
Booking verification
The annual report also makes reference to the Data Protection Commission (DPC) here launching an inquiry into Ryanair's booking verification process last October.
The report states that Ryanair has engaged with the DPC "explaining that its verification requirement is designed to ensure compliance with safety and security protocols, and that the process of verification fully complies with the requirements of the GDPR".
The report says that the inquiry is expected to take at least one year "and while Ryanair is confident in its position, the DPC may ultimately find that the verification process has not fully complied with the GDPR, which could lead to the imposition of a substantial fine".
Boeing planes
In his message to shareholders, Mr O'Leary says that 'the biggest medium-term challenge we face, remains the risk to Boeing deliveries'.
He said: 'While the final units of our 210 Boeing 737-8200 order were contracted to deliver in December 2024, at our March 2025 year end Boeing left us short 34 of these deliveries.
'We got five more in April but the remaining 29 are not expected to deliver until the second half of FY26, hopefully in time for summer 2026. The quality and timeliness of Boeing deliveries has recently improved under their new management, but this needs to be reflected in rising monthly production if Boeing is to erase its current delivery backlog.'
Mr O'Leary says that over the next decade Ryanair hopes to buy 300 more Boeing MAX-10 aircraft, to grow to 300 million guests per annum and to create approximately 10,000 new jobs.
The aggregate amount of compensation paid by Ryanair to its key management personnel was €14.7m including a €4.2m non-cash technical accounting charge in relation to unvested share options.
In the 12 months to the end of March, the airline employed an average of 27,076 as staff costs totalled €1.75bn.