Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary has slammed a French Minister as “stupid” after he said that he would not travel on a Boeing jet.
According to the website POLITICO French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire’s attack on Boeing’s safety record earned him a scorching response from Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary, who on Wednesday referred to him as a “stupid politician” and called his comments “silly and ill-advised.”
In an interview with POLITICO on the sidelines of an Airlines for Europe summit in Brussels, O’Leary also denounced the way that Boeing has been regulated by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), saying the agency was “rubber-stamping” the U.S. plane-maker.
O’Leary was responding to Le Maire saying on Tuesday: “I’d rather fly Airbus than Boeing. My family too: they care about me.”
To “some stupid politician going: ‘My family don’t feel safe on a [Boeing] 737,’ I say: ‘Well, then try flying on an Airbus with a problem with the engine that hasn’t been repaired,’” O’Leary said, referring to the defects in the Pratt & Whitney engines that have grounded hundreds of Airbus planes for inspections.
The Ryanair Group operates 578 Boeing 737s of different models.
Mr O’Leary also noted that about “20% of the Airbus fleet” is going to be grounded to repair an engine problem.
However, Mr O’Leary added in the POLITICO interview that airlines expect perfection in new aircraft they buy. “Every day when Airbus and Boeing produce or deliver a new aircraft, the quality of that has to be second to none. We’re paying $100 million for every one of these aircraft. We need to know that the standards of safety and that quality control is top notch in both in Toulouse and in Seattle,” O’Leary said.
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