Search for Airline More Spartan Than Spirit Ends in Ireland
Quick, someone block the New York Times website on the computer of Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza. The head of the Miramar-based discount carrier will be devastated if he learns that there's another airline that is more ruthless about achieving low fares (a Baldanza obsession) and more willing to offend customers with public statements.
In Baldanza's case, that's an advertising campaign full of harmless sex jokes, but in the case of Michael O'Leary, it's a penchant for bluntly telling his customers that on Ryanair they'll be treated like cattle. From the profile of O'Leary in today's Times:
He once dressed as the pope to advertise Ryanair's new route from Dublin to Rome. He has declared that fat people should pay more for their seats, but that it would take too long to weigh them at the airport. And, at a news conference to discuss the possibility of starting trans-Atlantic flights, he suggested -- to the consternation of the young woman gamely translating his remarks into German -- that business-class customers would receive oral sex.For proof of that last part, watch the video above.
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