That’s Ireland

Some time after my first series of letters to Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary about saving money by running airplanes with no seats, I noticed that he had made reference to the topic in two media interviews. I immediately assumed that he was preparing the ground for a joint venture with me manufacturing seatless airplanes, so I wrote him this letter: >>>

Third Letter to Ryanair

Dear Mr O’Leary,

I am delighted that you have started to actively promote the seat-free airplane concept, and I would like to arrange a meeting to see how we can develop it further as a joint venture partnership. I have now added the following to my thesis:

Mick O’Leary (our thinking is so similar that I now feel that we are almost friends) then showed how quickly he can react to a positive concept. I first contacted him in April with the then-novel proposal that airplanes might not need seats.

In May he told Der Spiegel that: ‘You could have airplanes with no seats, in ten years’ time. Why do you have to sit down?’ In August the Sunday Times wrote that ‘[O'Leary] talks of an airline in which reclining seats have gone; maybe one day there’ll be no seats at all.’

I tipped a wink to this great innovator, who had taken my embryonic idea and quickly cast it loose in the marketplace of aviation ergonomics. I looked forward to the day when we signed on the dotted line and began to exploit it commercially.

How does that sound? Please let me know when would be a good time for us to discuss the idea further. As you are more experienced in these matters, I would be happy to discuss whatever proposal you may have about the nature of our partnership.

Yours sincerely,
Pierce Whitehead

The Ryanair Correspondence

• My first letter
• Ryanair’s first reply
• My second letter
• Ryanair’s second reply
• My third letter (this one)
• Ryanair’s third reply
• My fourth letter
• Ryanair’s fourth reply

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