Ryanair boss pelted with pies calls aviation a target of climate criticism

By our economics editors

Sep 14, 2023 at 5:21 pm

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary, who had two pies in the face from climate activists last week, is not concerned about his safety. However, the CEO believes that the climate movement has wrongly targeted aviation, he told Sky News.

In the interview, O’Leary jokes that he will watch out for flying cakes from now on. The CEO says he is not concerned about his own safety. However, he now always carries an extra shirt.

A week ago, two women in Brussels attacked him with cream cakes. “Stop polluting your planes,” said one of the climate activists. O’Leary went to the European Commission with a petition for the protection of overflight air traffic.

The CEO seems unimpressed by the activists. “Aviation is wrongly accused of climate change. We have become a kind of target of the climate movement,” he told Sky News.

According to him, shipping is responsible for 5 percent of European emissions, while aircraft account for 2 percent of emissions.

Perhaps O’Leary is citing figures from a corona year, when the number of flights had fallen drastically. In 2019, emissions from European air traffic and European shipping were approximately the same, the European Environment Agency reports. Both international flights and shipping accounted for about 4 percent of emissions.

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