Aer Lingus leaves Ryanair behind in charity runway run

Christoph Mueller, the outgoing Aer Lingus chief executive, bounced into The Irish Times newsroom this week for his interview on our weekly business podcast. Boy, was he happy.

The Aer Lingus team last Saturday won the bud:runway run, a 12 km annual race around the runways of Budapest airport in aid of a basket of children's charities. It was organised by anna.aero, an irreverent website for aviation geeks.

“We are officially the fastest airline in the world,” grinned Mueller, as he rattled me with a bear-like handshake.

More than 600 runners took part in the race, which was led home by the Aer Lingus team captained by its chief strategy officer, Stephen Kavanagh.

One of the airline's cost managers, Robert Murphy, also won the individual prize after he led the race from start to finish, finishing in a blistering time of 41 minutes and 26 seconds.

Ryanair's new chief commercial officer, Kenny Jacobs, also performed admirably and easily broke the hour mark, although he couldn't catch Aer Lingus. Perhaps if Michael O'Leary had been chasing him while waving a set of monthly management accounts, he would have romped home. Next year, Kenny.

Participants included staff from Qatar Airways, Southwestern, and sponsors Nike. Everyone who finished the race received a "Bron's medal", in memory of Bronte Hogan, late daughter of anna.aero publisher, Paul Hogan.

She passed away in 2011 at the age of 12 after a five-year battle with leukaemia. The Anthony Nolan bone marrow charity that helped her was one of the beneficiaries of the race.

Puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?