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Ryanair Holdings PLC Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary has said he plans to hand over to a ‘nicer’ successor by 2035, the Financial Times reported on Friday. O’Leary is in talks to extend his contract with the Dublin-based budget carrier for ‘three to five years’ from its current end in 2028, he told the FT. The CEO’s current deal promises a €100 million payout if he hits certain targets. O’Leary said he would leave the firm in ‘five to 10 years’ and added: ‘I don’t want to hang around till 96 like [Warren] Buffett.’ ‘In [2028] I’ll be 67,’ O’Leary told the FT. ‘I can’t see any reason not to do another three to five-year period of time, but to my mind, I suspect we’re coming to the end of it at that stage.’ O’Leary added: ‘In an ideal world, we would have a modest interregnum... You would announce this is the next group CEO, and I would stay around for two years to train them up.’ ‘Taking me out at some point in the next five to 10 years would give Ryanair the opportunity to be a little bit softer and a little bit nice,’ he said. ‘Ryanair would be better off if they didn’t have someone who was always shouting and swearing and actively lighting fires.’ O’Leary joined Ryanair in the late 1980s to work for founder Tony Ryan, and became chief executive in 1994. During his tenure, Ryanair has become Europe’s largest airline. ‘Succession is always a risk,’ he told the FT. ‘There’s no point in pretending otherwise. If I take the top tier of management, we’re all in our early sixties. We have the second tier of management in their early to mid forties.’ ‘By the time the second tier are in their mid forties or early fifties, that’s when they should be taking over,’ O’Leary said. ‘If I were to die tomorrow - and we’ve had this discussion on the board - the senior team can clearly mind the business for the next year or so, but the next level down, who are in their early to mid forties, they don’t know any other way to run a business.’ Shares in Ryanair were up 1.1% at €30.03 on Monday afternoon in Dublin. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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