Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, perhaps the best-known airline boss in the world, is set to receive a bonus of over €100 million in share options, having finally achieved a target established in 2019.
According to the conditions of the bonus package, detailed below, all O’Leary needs to do now in order to lay hands on the jackpot is stick out his job with the budget carrier until 2028. O’Leary has already been with the firm for 31 years and has already indicated he would be interested in negotiating to stay beyond his current contract, ending 2027-28.
Share value has doubled and profits are rising
The terms for the bonus were first defined in 2019 and stated that the airline’s share price needed to close over €21 for 28 consecutive days or reach €2 billion in post-tax profits by 2024. That deadline was extended to 2028 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the airline industry.
Since then the airline’s value has doubled and the first of the two conditions has now been reached, after its share price exceeded the €21 euro threshold for the 28th day in succession on 29 May 2025.
Not only has the first share price rule now been met, but a Simple Flying analysis suggests the airline is “positioned to meet the second” too, noting that the carrier reached €1.61 billion in profits for the 2024-2025 fiscal year and that an ongoing share buyback policy through to May 2026 is increasing earnings per share (EPS) and boosting shareholder value.
That’s on top of the firm making its Dublin-listed stock available to non-EU nationals in March 2025, ahead of an expected listing on the MSCI World Index – strategies that are predicted to make the airline’s shares even more desirable.
“Exceptional value”?
Bloomberg figures show the airline outdoing not only European competitors but also Southwest, the US firm whose low-cost, high turnaround, single-fleet model effectively provided Ryanair’s blueprint.
While the BBC has pointed out that O’Leary’s windfall would mark “one of the biggest pay-outs in European corporate history,” the mercurial CEO who is not known for shying away from confrontation, has defended the package. Responding to media interest in the compensation agreement earlier in the month, he argued that the share options he and the “rest of the management team” are entitled to, deliver “exceptional value for Ryanair shareholders in an era when Premiership footballers and managers are getting paid 20-25 million a year.”
