Ryanair Twitter account mercilessly mocks UK PM while CEO demands vaccine mandate for travel

Someone come get the Ryanair CEO and his leadership team because they are on full tilt. While the official Ryanair Twitter account has repeatedly mocked the United Kingdom’s Primer Minister Boris Johnson, the CEO of the airline recently sat for an interview where he called for a vaccine mandate for travel and said anti-vaxxers were idiots.

Maybe they do things a little differently in Ireland, but to see such outspoken, unfiltered, non-PC commentary from the CEO of an airline, never mind its official company Twitter account is a little startling – at least for an American.

For example, in the wake of a controversial Christmas party that made the headlines in the UK, Ryanair offered these gems to the Twitterverse.

We are trying to imagine a US-based airline offering such frank opinions of a political leader and the havoc it would cause here in the States. Picture the official Twitter account of say United Airlines dropping bombs on President Biden, or maybe folks over at Southwest spitting fire at AOC.

Or the people running the Spirit Airlines account launching some heat at De Santis. Ok, actually we could see Spirit doing something like this.

In fairness, Ryanair is kind of the Spirit Airlines of that part of Europe. Their CEO, Michael O’Leary, also seems to have a very thin filter and in an unusual move spoke very frankly about anti-vaxxers in an interview published in The Telegraph.

According to reporting from Bloomberg, O’Leary said, “If you’re not vaccinated, you shouldn’t be allowed in the hospital, you shouldn’t be allowed to fly, you shouldn’t be allowed on the London Underground, and you shouldn’t be allowed in the local supermarket or your pharmacy either.” Those who refuse? O’Leary calls them idiots.

Such frankness from the head of an airline is startling, and perhaps refreshing at some level, but it would seem risky. Again, here in the States, we can’t imagine something like this being said by Doug Parker the CEO of American Airlines or Gary Kelly the CEO of Southwest Airlines.

The subject of vaccines is an extremely hot topic with huge swaths of the country taking near-fanatical opinions on the subject. Hard to imagine such behavior wouldn’t implode on a US-based company. But, hey, maybe they just do business a little differently across the pond. Consider this American surprised.

How about you, reader? What’s your take on the way Ryanair handles itself. Those of y’all in Ireland or the UK, educate me on this style of business. Is this normal for the head of a major company? Or it just Ryanair being Ryanair?