You’ve gotta appreciate a restaurant (and an airline CEO) with a sense of humor…
Restaurant adds junk fees to Michael O’Leary’s dinner bill
64-year-old Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary is a bit of a legend in the airline industry. He’s one of the most brilliant, outspoken, and unapologetic airline CEOs that you’ll find anywhere.
Fortunately he also appreciates a good joke, because he got a taste of his own medicine while dining out on the night of Friday, March 21, 2025. O’Leary dined at Luvida Restaurant in Navan, Ireland. When he was presented with the bill, there were €37.85 worth of extra charges.
These included an extra leg space fee of €7.95, a priority booth seating fee of €9.95, and a quiet area reservation fee of €19.95. This was in addition to the pinot grigio, battered prawns, mushroom on toast, seabass, and “open main,” that he ordered.
As the restaurant described it in a Facebook post:
Thank you to Michael O’Leary for choosing to dine with us tonight! It was a pleasure to host you. Hope you don’t mind us adding some additional charges to your bill for extra leg space, priority booth seating and quiet area reservation
Obviously this was all a joke, and those extra fees weren’t actually charged. But hey, kudos to the restaurant staff for their humor, and talk about a brilliant publicity stunt, as this is being covered widely in Ireland.
Michael O’Leary is a one-of-a-kind guy
There are lots of very smart airline CEOs out there, though O’Leary takes a different approach than just about everyone else, and you can’t help but respect him for that. He’s proud of Ryanair’s no frills business model, and he has even stated that he would charge for passengers to use the lavatory or introducing standing-only tickets, if regulators would allow it.
For that matter, how many airline CEOs go on record as saying “the customer is nearly always wrong?” Well, O’Leary does. His approach is so rebellious that you can’t help but be fascinated by what he says.
That attitude goes beyond just the CEO. Heck, people intentionally pay to assign the window seat that doesn’t have a window on Ryanair flights, then post a picture of themselves in it, in order to get roasted by Ryanair’s social media team. And my gosh, it works, like the below post, which has been viewed 48 million times in the past several days.
Bottom line
During a night out on Friday, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary was presented with a check that had all kinds of fees, including for extra leg space, priority booth seating, and a quiet area reservation. Talk about a great publicity stunt!
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.