Eco-terrorists who seek to eliminate aviation altogether ambushed Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary with a pie in the face during a news conference in Brussels. But Leary took the matter in stride, responding with grace and charm. That gave Ryanair’s social media team plenty to work with.
O’Leary Takes Pie In the Face, But Has The Last Laugh
I use the term eco-terrorists because any organization that seeks to stymie commerce through the elimination of air travel is essentially advocating for the destruction of my livelihood and the livelihood of millions of others. That is terrorism. Whatever your views on how to address climate change (and I absolutely agree we should take it seriously), the bottom line is this: Earth is made for man…not vice versa.
Now, to Brussels.
One climate protestor approached O’Leary, welcomed him to Brussels, then said, “Stop the pollution of the f***ing planes!” Pardon your Flemish...
Then another pied him (spread a cream pie in his face) with a giant crap-eating grin on her face.
Michael O'Leary, boss of Ryanair got pied in the face by climate protesters in Brussels.pic.twitter.com/LWPCA1WELI
— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) September 7, 2023
Mind you, this was in the midst of a press conference. Rather than become agitated, O’Leary smiled and said, “Well done,” before removing his coat and continuing the press conference. When the media gaggle pressed him to comment on what had just transpired, he said:
“I love cream cakes, they’re my favorite!”
I love it. And that gave Ryanair’s social media team all the fodder it needed to remind folks that for the price of that pie, they could have bought a flight instead.
Warm welcome in Brussels today to celebrate RYR’s 7 new routes for Winter 23. Passengers so happy with our routes and petition that they’re celebrating with cake. We’ve got tasty low fares! pic.twitter.com/MpT6ssSX6a
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) September 7, 2023
https://twitter.com/Ryanair/status/1699742262937227530?s=20
O’Leary Was In Brussels For A Worthy Cause
And as One Mile At A Time notes, O’Leary was in Brussels for a very worthy cause: the annoying French. Specifically, he (quite reasonably) believes that flights should be permitted to cross French airspace during French Air Traffic Control strikes (which happen only on days ending in -y). To demonstrate, he presented European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen with a petition which included 1.5 million signatures:
So far in 2023, French ATC (Air Traffic Control) strikes have forced Ryanair to cancel over 4000 flights mainly overflying France.
It is unacceptable that France uses Min Service Legislation to protect French flights during these repeated ATC strikes, while overflights, none of which are operating to/from France, suffer all these cancellations. This is unfair. The EU must act now to protect overflights and the EU Single Market.
Ryanair has repeatedly called on the EU Commission and Ursula von der Leyen to take action to protect EU passengers and overflights during repeated French ATC strikes. Ryanair calls on all passengers to sign our petition.
Do it today and send an urgent message to Ursula von der Leyen that EU citizens demand action to protect overflights during French ATC strikes.
And to that, I say amen and add my virtual signature.
https://twitter.com/Ryanair/status/1699770068567990761?s=20
O’Leary is brash and Trump-like sometimes, but goodness he fights the good fight and works hard to keep downward pressure on airfare. He is a man I respect.
CONCLUSION
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary was pied in the face at a news conference in Brussels. Those who did this will not be remembered, but O’Leary will be for handling it so gracefully and for working hard to keep airfares low, thereby making it possible for so many to see parts of the world that may otherwise have been out of reach.
The old pie in the face move is a well known protest move in Belgium. I remember when they got Bill Gates in the late 90s.
I’m not a fan of pies in the face- it’s a form of assault and should be treated and prosecuted as such, but the term terrorism is misplaced here. A pie in the face is not an act of terror.
Thus far I haven’t seen the pie thrower identified as part of a group with a known set of beliefs and/or objectives. All we know is she says “stop the pollution”. Would that have been an unreasonable protest if that is all that was said? The line gets crossed when the pie is cast, but let’s not over-dramatize this– the line is crossed, but an act of terror goes much farther than this.
Additionally what is suggested here is that holding a belief that if implemented broadly would eliminate certain jobs or an industry is terrorism. If that is a defining characteristic of terrorism, then aren’t vegetarians terrorists? What about those who oppose prostitution, or strip clubs? These seem to be reasnoable views for non-terrorists to hold. Myself, I don’t believe that income taxes are necessary to have a functioning government. That makes me weird and in the minority, but I don’t think of myself as a terrorist.
The only thing I will say about these morons is that Darwinism will take care of them. You probably saw the ones that glued themselves on the runaway of German airports to disrupt their operations. They used a mix of concrete and epoxy resin. Well, not only they were removed but they had to amputate their hands due to the mix they used to glue their hands being way too strong. I can guarantee you they won’t glue their hands anymore. Others were ran over by drivers in highways or removed with force. As I said, little by little these idiots will be self eliminated.
Sure Ryanair isn’t the best way to fly and this is more of a public opinion campaign to cover for their not-so-good customer service, but this is a noble cause for consumers and Ryanair’s cheap pricing has kept intra-Euro fares in a good manner. Also great marketing from start to end.
Will say that CEO did a wonderful job in staying composed despite being assaulted on live TV. Just a sidenote, but in Belgium, deliberately hitting someone in any form results in prison time (a week to about eight months) and a fine and doing it on live TV in front of millions of viewers is perfect evidence to use in court…
“ the elimination of air travel is essentially advocating for the destruction of my livelihood and the livelihood of millions of others. That is terrorism”
As a wise man once said……”You can learn to code”
YES this is a joke.
My hat is off to O’Leary and his PR team for deftly handling the situation….you would swear it was planned to start with!!
I’m a big believer in protest. You may not like the message, but you have to defer to their right to spread their message. However, the pie in the face is crossing the line….assault in the first degree without mitigating circumstances. There are other ways to spread you message sans blocking roads nor sitting on the tennis court during a tournament. Things could turn ugly. Someone will get hurt and the public will have no empathy for the protesters.
I don’t see the British Republicans (oppose the monarchy) burning down Buckingham Palace….yet. Looks like Charles and Camilla get a free ride…for now.
O’Leary is a public figure and he wasn’t harmed. I admire Belgium’s tolerance for discourse and a little bit of disobedience. Imagine if someone tried to pie Scott Kirby in Houston.
Matthew, you must’ve been in some mood when you wrote this. Shots at hippies, shots at the French, intolerance, saying the world belongs to man rather than man being the stewards of the earth. You’re normally not mean spirited and I appreciate your inner balance even when I disagree with you.
More specifically, these tree huggers are not trying to incite terror so by definition they are not terrorists. Whether they’re brave eco defenders, semi harmless kooks, or fringe cases that need to re-up their meds is a matter of personal perspective.
As to O’Leary, the man is a huge piece of trash. While his airline makes travel for cheap possible, I literally can’t think of a single redeeming quality the man possesses. Actually, I stand corrected: he apparently can take a joke.
Oh man. I was frowning at „eco-terrorists“ but the explanation is an insult to your own intelligence.
– people who shoot cause terror. Those who bomb, too. Those who run others over by car, yes. Those who throw pies, as evidenced by O‘Learys reaction, don’t.
– I’ll indulge you and accept that earth was made for men (can our daughters have a bit of it too, tho?). So men, plural, get to democratically decide how to use it. And if rationality prevails and fossil fuels will be taxed to a degree appropriate to their damage, then yes, you might have to adapt. Same as the workers building cars that used leaded fuels. Or do you want the adapting to be done by the farmers whose land won’t bear crops anymore?
Terrorism is the use of violence or intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.
Here we have quite blatant intimidation.
If a pie in the face is intimidation, people walking around with handguns – whose only use is to kill people – surely qualify as well. That’s simply the same logic. Those gun toting people are terrorists and need to be arrested promptly, right?
I agree with you on guns, but I don’t mean the pie here. I mean the attempt to end air service as we know it constitutes a grave threat to mankind. Plus, the use of vandalism by ecoterrorists in pursuit of their aims should be met with swift and excruciating punishment.
These idiots would be far better served working to try to find solutions to bring down the price of desalinization, invest in alternate energy research, and work on ways to address a climate that is going to change no matter what. Ending air travel is a non-starter.
Besides Moe, Larry, or Curly, who’s going to intimidated by the threat of a pie to the face?
No we don’t. Absolutely no one was or could reasonably expected to be intimidated. Violence, yes. But the idea that anyone was terrorized by a pie??
Good ! All airlines’ CEOs should get a pie in the face. Not especially for pollution but for the high fees charged to people.