Showdown of Ireland’s two aviation upstarts
Former Aer Arann CEO Pádraig Ó Céidigh has spoken of life as an aviation upstart – squaring up to the biggest industry agitator of all – in RTÉ’s new two-part story of Ryanair and its larger-than-life boss Michael O’Leary.
Turbulence - The Story of Ryanair is a two-part series airing next Monday on RTÉ One, with both episodes dropping on RTÉ Player that day.
It explores the personal and inside stories at the heart of Ryanair's origins, as well as an insight into its infamous brash approach to marketing – and how O’Leary transformed the airline from a near-failure to a massive profit-making machine, changing air travel in Ireland and across Europe.
One of the key contributors is former Aer Arann CEO and Galway native Pádraig Ó Céidigh, who recalls the time when he bought Aer Arann in 1994 – later leading to him clashing with Michael O'Leary.
Aer Arann was described as a ‘lifeline for the West of Ireland’, catering to tourists coming to Galway every year – or, in the documentary, ‘a scrappy Irish airline’ seeing an opportunity.
“There was a little airline flying initially from Galway Airport to the Aran Islands,” Pádraig Ó Céidigh recalls in the documentary.
“I got blown away with the airplane flying across Galway Bay and landing in this small little runway and the sea is coming up on the other side. I said ‘wow. this is mad’.
“I remortgaged my home, got a little bit of a loan from the bank, got a partner, and we bought the lot,” he adds.
He believed a section of the half a million tourists coming to Galway every year might also visit Aran. And he was right – so by the 1990s, they then began to expand to different airports in Ireland and internationally, including Manchester, London, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
"All of a sudden, the airline went from two and a half million turnover to about 120 (million) in about four years. We were fastest growing airline in Europe, flying up to 20 flights a day between Cork and Dublin and back down again. Next thing was O'Leary announces they're doing Cork/Dublin,” he recalls.
In 2006, Ryanair undercut Aer Arann, to take them out by running routes at a loss – and Pádraig Ó Céidigh got a summons to meet Michael O’Leary.
“I went up and he had a big office. He said: ‘it's not going to work. If I were you, I'd go back to where you came from, Connemara’."
Ultimately it was a volcano in Iceland that put a halt to Aer Arann’s expansion.
“We didn't have the financial resources that Ryanair had. Ryanair knew that. But you have to stand back and admire what's been done,” says Pádraig.