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Michael O'Leary
Michael O'Leary RYAAY
Group Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director, Ryanair
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Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary Talks Airlines, Fuel Risks | Bloomberg Talks

📅 May 18, 2026 Bloomberg Podcasts 8 MIN 234 VIEWS 35 SEGMENTS · 3 SPEAKERS
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary joins "Bloomberg Surveillance TV" to discuss the war in Iran's impact on the airline industry, fuel risks due to the Strait of Hormuz, and his prediction on when the conflict in Iran will end. See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information. Bloomberg Talks curates top interviews from around Bloomberg News. Hear conversations with the biggest names in finance, politics and entertainment. On Bloomberg Talks, we round up interviews with Fortune 500 CEOs, government officials, well-known investors and business leaders. Listen t...

What Michael O'Leary said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair, discussed the airline industry's resilience amid geopolitical tensions, highlighting Ryanair's strong fuel hedging position. He stated Ryanair is 80% hedged on jet fuel at $67 a barrel through March 2027, which shields the airline from oil price spikes. He reported record full-year results with 28 million passengers and €2.26 billion profit after tax, and predicted weaker European competitors would fail by autumn due to lack of hedging and high debt. O'Leary dismissed buying European carriers, calling them 'crap,' and emphasized Ryanair's dominance in short-haul with low costs. He discussed the upcoming Boeing Max 10 deliveries, 300 aircraft ordered at COVID-era prices, which will increase capacity and efficiency. He ruled out US expansion, focusing on European growth to 300 million passengers. He also addressed jet fuel supply concerns, noting no immediate issues, and identified Wizz Air and Air Baltic as potential casualties if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.

Key takeaways

  1. Ryanair is 80% hedged on jet fuel at $67 a barrel through March 2027, protecting against oil price spikes.
  2. Ryanair reported record full-year results: 28 million passengers and €2.26 billion profit after tax.
  3. Ryanair will take delivery of the first 15 Boeing Max 10 aircraft in spring 2027, with 300 ordered at COVID-era prices.
  4. O'Leary predicts weaker European airlines will fail by September or October due to lack of hedging and high debt.
  5. Ryanair plans to grow to 300 million passengers in Europe over the next decade, with no US expansion.

Numbers and commitments

FigureWhat it refers toTypeAt
80% Fuel hedging coverage through March 2027 metric 0:30
$67 a barrel Hedged jet fuel price price 0:30
28 million Passengers in record full-year results metric 0:30
€2.26 billion Profit after tax in record full-year results metric 0:30
15 First Boeing Max 10 aircraft deliveries in spring 2027 timeline 1:20
300 Boeing Max 10 aircraft ordered commitment 1:20
20% More seats per plane on Max 10 metric 1:20
20% Less fuel burn per plane on Max 10 metric 1:20
260 million Passengers this year, up 4% metric 3:39
300 million Passenger target in Europe over next decade guidance 3:39

Chapters

  1. 0:00Fuel hedging and record results
  2. 1:20Boeing Max 10 orders and deliveries
  3. 1:57European airline consolidation outlook
  4. 2:58US low-cost carrier comparison
  5. 3:39No US expansion, European growth focus
  6. 4:30Customer service improvements
  7. 4:56Summer travel trends and transatlantic demand
  8. 5:44Jet fuel supply and Strait of Hormuz risks
  9. 7:44Potential airline failures and predictions

Questions asked in this interview

8
  1. 0:19Have you seen something like this before?
  2. 1:53So are you interested though in buying a new carrier in its entirety aside from just their aircraft?
  3. 2:39How does Ryanair succeed in that environment, in that demand backdrop?
  4. 3:37Could you expand into the US?
  5. 4:25It was brutal. Do you remember that?
  6. 4:51Do they want to come to America anymore?
  7. 5:42When will Europe run out of fuel?
  8. 6:46What are you hedged out to?
Bloomberg Audio Studios 0:02 ↗
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.
Interviewer 0:07 ↗
Joining us now, legend of the industry, the Ryanair boss, Michael O'Leary. Michael, good morning. Good to see you. Come, we've been friends for a while.
Michael O'Leary 0:14 ↗
You're a fart of the industry.
Interviewer 0:15 ↗
How would you describe yourself? Old fart.
Michael O'Leary 0:17 ↗
Old fart, I think. Yes.
Interviewer 0:19 ↗
I think it's fantastic. Dinosaur. You've seen it all, sir. Have you seen something like this before? The situation years ago, the Russians invaded Ukraine. 20 years ago, the second Gulf War, the first Gulf War, 911.
Michael O'Leary 0:30 ↗
Yeah, this happens regularly within our industry. That's why in Ryanair we typically hedge 80% of our fuel. We're 80% hedged out to March 2027 at 67 bucks a barrel. We're in great shape. Apart from the fact our share price has tanked in the last two weeks because, oh, they're an airline. Oh, God. We just reported record full year results. 28 million passengers, 2.26 billion euros profit after tax, spitting off cash to shareholders, share buybacks, and with a bit of luck if this continues, although you know we can all have a debate how long we think this will continue in the Middle East and with the Straits of Hormuz, some of the flaky competitors in Europe will get taken out in carrier baskets by about September, October because they're not hedged on oil and they're borrowed up to their eyeballs in net debt.
Interviewer 1:17 ↗
Are you ready to buy?
Michael O'Leary 1:20 ↗
We are certainly ready to buy cheap aircraft. If anybody's got any cheap aircraft, I'm really excited. We are about to get the first 15 of our Max 10 aircraft from Boeing in the spring of 2027. 20% more seats per plane. Burns 20% less oil. The technological efficiency of the new engines is remarkable. And we've ordered 300 of those from Boeing. We priced them during COVID, so we've basically stolen them. And they will transform even our operating economics in Europe for the next decade.
Interviewer 1:53 ↗
So are you interested though in buying a new carrier in its entirety aside from just their aircraft?
Michael O'Leary 1:57 ↗
There is nothing in Europe you would want to buy. It's all crap. It will go bust in the not too distant future. Europe is inexorably moving the same direction the US did 20 years ago. Three large connecting carriers, BA, Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, they are making out like bandits at the moment because all the long haul connecting traffic has switched off the Gulf carriers and is going on those legacy guys. Short haul, Ryanair will continue to dominate the short haul space in Europe because we have much lower fares and much lower costs. We're the only really low fare, low cost carrier in Europe. There's a few other low fare, not so low cost carriers in Europe, but they're all going to go the same way as Spirit and Frontier in the States.
Interviewer 2:39 ↗
That's what I wanted to ask. It seems like the model in the US is really struggling. We had Spirit go bankrupt. There's talk of mass consolidation among some of the other low cost carriers and this idea that every consumer is expecting higher quality and that that is what's generating a lot of the revenues. How does Ryanair succeed in that environment, in that demand backdrop?
Michael O'Leary 2:58 ↗
I mean the problem for the last 20 years in the States is there's really been no low cost carriers anymore. I mean we copied this formula originally from Southwest back in the late 1980s when Herb Kelleher was in charge. You know, Southwest were charging $10 fares. Now, Southwest average fare last year was 140 bucks. It's not a low fare carrier anymore. If you had a real low fare carrier here in the States, as Ryanair is in Europe, our average fare last year was 40 bucks, there would still be very strong demand because the main airlines here, I mean, they've had control of the supply in the market for the last 20 years and they've been pricing up. The cost of air travel in the States is incredibly high, particularly given that you don't pay for ATC.
Interviewer 3:37 ↗
Could you expand into the US?
Michael O'Leary 3:39 ↗
No, absolutely not. We're too busy expanding in Europe and in those countries around Europe. There is so much growth available to us in Europe. You look at last year we grew 4%. We're the biggest airline in Europe. We grew 4% to 260 million passengers. This year I grow another 4%, 260 million passengers. And in the next decade with these Max 10 aircraft, I'm going to grow to 300 million passengers all in Europe. I mean Europe is the best playground for low cost airline that you could possibly imagine. A couple of big useless legacy airlines charging more, you know, charging annual salaries for their long haul travel, but nobody able to do the low cost stuff. We do the low cost stuff well with cheap Irish guys, you know, and so we do it well with the Max and with an order for 300 really fantastic aircraft.
Interviewer 4:25 ↗
Used to be so mean back in the '90s. Used to be so mean. It was brutal. Do you remember that?
Michael O'Leary 4:30 ↗
Well, we were never brutal. We were cheap and mean. Now we're just cheap and cheerful. New aircraft, on-time flights, huge customer service. I mean, last year our customer service metrics were record. Customer service satisfaction was up from 86 to 89%. I never thought I'd see the day when I got more than 50% customer satisfaction, but hey, who knew?

17 more exchanges in this transcript

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Cite this transcript

APA, MLA, BibTeX
APA

O'Leary, M. (2026, May 18). Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary Talks Airlines, Fuel Risks | Bloomberg Talks [Interview transcript]. Bloomberg Podcasts. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/917417/

MLA

Michael O'Leary. "Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary Talks Airlines, Fuel Risks | Bloomberg Talks." Bloomberg Podcasts, 18 May. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/917417/.

BibTeX 
@misc{oleary2026_917417,
  author       = {Michael O'Leary},
  title        = {Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary Talks Airlines, Fuel Risks | Bloomberg Talks},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, Bloomberg Podcasts. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {may},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/917417/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}