Typically zany behaviour by Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary.
6 SEP: Michael O’Leary is at it again. The controversial boss of Irish budget airline Ryanair is reported as saying that the airline could save money by having only one pilot per aircraft, instead of two.
He says flight attendants can be trained to take over and land planes in the event of an emergency.
Mr O’Leary told Bloomberg Business Week magazine: "Why does every plane have two pilots?Read more
"Really, you need only one pilot.
"Let’s take out the second pilot. Let the bloody computer fly it".
Asked what would happen if the lone pilot suffered a heart attack, he said one of the cabin crew would be trained to land the plane.
"If the pilot has an emergency, he rings the bell. He calls her (flight attendant) in. She could take over".
Mr O’Leary has previously canvassed moves like a fee to use aircraft toilets and standing-room-only seating on planes, prompting commentators to suggest that many of his utterings are designed solely to win Ryanair publicity.
Predictably, pilots aren’t impressed with his latest offering, ridiculing it as "dangerous fantasy" and "beyond preposterous".
The London Daily Mail quotes British Airlines Pilots Association general secretary Jim McAuslan as saying: "Are there no lengths to which he will not go to get publicity?
"His suggestion is unwise, unsafe and the public will be horrified".
Mr O’Leary is unrepentant. He says: "If you don’t approach air travel with a radical point of view, then you get in the same bloody mindset as all the other morons in this industry.
"In many ways, travel is pleasant and enriching. It’s just that the physical process of getting from point A to point B shouldn’t be pleasant, nor enriching. It should be quick, efficient, affordable, and safe".
