Trust me when I tell you that many of the very best, most profitable and MOST ADMIRED companies in the world are not run by nice guys. MO'L is widely disliked (especially, it seems, on this and other professional fora)...but he deserves a lot of credit for his clarity of vision, and dogged pursuit of a very clearly stated business purpose. They won't admit it, but most other airline CEO's would sell their own children to be in his position.
"Clarity of vision"?
Even Ryanair's own website acknowledges that they
copied the Southwest business model.
Except they forgot to copy an extremely important part: the culture.
To be fair, MOL admits he's not very good at that.
However, Mr. Justice Thomas Smyth was recently scathing about the way the airline is run:
https://www.eurocockpit.be/sites/def...A_CC_Log_F.pdf