O’Leary returns to type and lets fly at Mueller

If your name is Christoph Mueller, it is probably best to put the paper down now and go make yourself a cup of tea.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary held a typically bullish press conference yesterday to talk about a clatter of new routes and pretty much anything else that came into his head.

There was the usual O’Leary stuff: complaints about regulators, governments, ash clouds and the like.

Our correspondent's ears pricked up, however, when he caught a broadside by O'Leary against Mueller, the outgoing Aer Lingus boss.

Soon-to-be-available Mueller

Ryanair is seeking a new chief financial officer and, in that context, some mischievous hack asked Micko if he rated the soon-to-be-available Mueller.

The journalist said the German was recognised as “one of the best” executives Aer Lingus has had.

O’Leary’s response would have withered an oak tree.

“I think he is recognised by some people in the media as being one of the best Aer Lingus CEOs ever, mind you that’s not setting the benchmark very high,” said O’Leary, personifying Ryanair’s new nicey-nice image (not).

The cranky one warmed to his theme: “If you look at when [Mueller] joined Aer Lingus about five years ago, they were carrying about 10 million passengers a year, now it’s nine.

“The share price was about €2.20, now it’s €1.30. They have no aircraft orders.

“They are leasing out some of their short-haul fleet to Little Red, which is losing money, and leasing in long-haul aircraft. The market has expressed its view on his tenure.”

O’Leary then conceded that Mueller was “a nice guy”, which, given the context, sounded just as pointed as the rest of his comments.

“But the difficulty for the management of Aer Lingus is they are never free to manage,” he added.

“They have to run down to Kildare Street to find out what the controller of the airline wants them to do.”

An aviation leopard never changes his spots.