(Alliance News)Â - Ryanair Holdings PLC chief Michael O'Leary has said that Boeing Co aircraft will be the "safest, most checked planes" once the manufacturer overcomes its issues with its 737 MAX models following two deadly crashes.
Speaking to the Times, the Irish businessman criticized the US manufacturer for doing a "seriously bad job of explaining their new planes," but also cast a vote of confidence in the company's new aircraft.
"People will love the plane when it's back, but we have a customer confidence issue," the budget airline boss told the newspaper in an interview published on Saturday.
"We will deal with that by hopefully having lower fares onboard the plane while trying it out.
"And if someone decides they don't want to fly for a period of time we will say, 'Fine, you can offload yourself and we will refund you.' That's how much confidence we have in the plane," the famously refund-averse O'Leary said.
The Irish budget airline did not cancel a contract with Boeing to order up to 210 of its 737s, including MAX models, despite the US company's grounding of the 737 MAX series last March after crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia killed 346 people.
The primary cause of the crashes in October 2018 and March 2019 is thought to be a fault in the flight control software, which Boeing had wanted to fix with an update more than a year ago.
In the most recent setback for Boeing, whose grounded 737 MAX airliners created a backlog in orders, foreign object debris was found in fuel tanks of some of the aircraft during maintenance work, the aviation giant said on Tuesday.
O'Leary faced criticism for claiming in the Times interview that terrorists "will generally be males of a Muslim persuasion".
The airline boss has been accused of making "racist and discriminatory" remarks, PA reported.
The Muslim Council of Britain said the comments amounted to discrimination against Muslim passengers, while hate-crime monitoring group, Tell Mama suggested his "flippant" words could end up having serious consequences for the business.
The 58-year-old told the Times that families with young children should be waved through airport security because there was "virtually" zero chance of them being bombers.
O'Leary also criticised UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the decision to rescue Flybe, with the 58-year-old questioning why taxpayers were left to foot the bill for a company owned by three of the industry's richest billionaires.
Flybe is owned by Connect Airways, a consortium made up of Cyrus Capital Partners, Stobart Group and Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic – which itself is half-owned by US giant Delta Airlines.
"If Branson and Delta won't put their hands in their pockets, why should the taxpayer?" O'Leary told The Times.
O'Leary said he believes the aviation industry has been treated unfairly over environmental issues and pointed out Ryanair is spending GBP25 billion over the next eight years to make its fleet greener.
Source dpa and PA
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