Skip to content
Michael O’Leary: Ryanair’s cost-cutting king

Michael O’Leary: Ryanair’s cost-cutting king

Good Bad Billionaire
Nov 10, 2025 49 min
Open in Clue

About this episode

<p>How Michael O’Leary, the outspoken CEO of Ryanair, turned a struggling regional airline into a €28 billion powerhouse by relentlessly cutting costs and embracing controversy.</p><p>BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng uncover how O’Leary - who neither founded Ryanair nor intended to work in aviation - redefined the airline industry. Through radical cost-cutting, lightning-fast plane turnarounds, and headline-grabbing stunts, he transformed the company into a disruptive, ultra-low-cost giant. From his early ventures to his rise as the face of budget flying, this episode charts how his bold tactics reshaped how millions travel across Europe.</p><p>Good Bad Billionaire is the podcast that explores the lives of the super-rich and famous, tracking their wealth, philanthropy, business ethics and success. There are leaders who made their money in Silicon Valley, on Wall Street and in high street fashion. From iconic celebrities and CEOs to titans of technology, the podcast unravels tales of fortune, power, economics, ambition and moral responsibility, before asking the audience to decide if they are good, bad, or just billionaires.</p>

Listen to this episode in English to learn English

Podcast episodes are one of the highest-density ways to absorb English at native pace. Michael O’Leary: Ryanair’s cost-cutting king from Good Bad Billionaire gives you natural dialogue, unscripted speech, and vocabulary that actually appears in real conversations.

In the Clue app, every word in the transcript is tappable. Tap an unknown word, see the translation in your language instantly, and keep listening without breaking flow.

Episodes to Learn English

More podcasts in English