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Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has said he is “truly sorry” for describing rival airlines as “high-fare rapists”.<\/b><\/p>\n
He had previously refused to apologise<\/a> to a rape crisis centre which criticised him for the comments.<\/p>\n O’Leary had made the remark earlier this month while talking to journalists ahead of Ryanair’s yearly meeting with shareholders.<\/p>\n Following the comments, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) wrote to him asking for an apology, in a letter seen by the BBC.<\/p>\n O’Leary had originally said that some people were “desperate to get to Ryanair’s low fares because they can’t afford to fly with the high-fare rapists around Europe”.<\/p>\n He subsequently defended his choice of words when asked by a reporter from the Press Association whether the language was appropriate.<\/p>\n “British Airways, Lufthansa, and everybody else’s high fares, I’ll happily offend them on a regular basis,” he had added.<\/p>\n Asked whether it would offend sexual assault victims, he said rape was “a terrible crime”.<\/p>\n In a video posted on Friday, O’Leary said that, over the last ten days, he had had “conversations with family and friends, both inside and outside Ryanair”.<\/p>\n “I have come to realise however that the word that I used so carelessly has caused considerable upset and offence to a wide number of people, especially to victims and survivors.<\/p>\n “I want to apologise, sincerely and unreservedly, to those people, especially to the survivors.”<\/p>\n O’Leary described his choice of language as “careless”, and said “it won’t happen again”.<\/p>\n “I will try to learn from this mistake, and do better in future.”<\/p>\n Following O’Leary’s first comments, the DRCC’s chief executive Rachel Morrogh had written to O’Leary accusing him of trying to get a headline with his comments.<\/p>\n She said the DRCC had received calls from rape victims who were “upset and distressed because of what you said”.<\/p>\n She offered O’Leary training on the impact of sexual violence and urged him to apologise.<\/p>\n “I can’t imagine you would ever use the term so flippantly again if you truly understood [what] it was like to survive rape,” she wrote.<\/p>\n In response, O’Leary had said: “I am quite clear that no remarks of mine could possibly trivialise the heinous crime of rape.”<\/p>\n He added that as he had not “trivialised the heinous crime of rape” he would “not be issuing any apology or accepting your offer of training”.<\/p>\n It was not the first time O’Leary had offended people while talking about his business<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2004, he reportedly called the owners of Stansted Airport “a bunch of overcharging rapists”, external<\/span><\/a> in a row over airport charges.<\/p>\n He has also previously called some of his own staff “lazy bastards” and once said to passengers looking for a refund “we don’t want to hear your sob stories”.<\/p>\n In June, he said the airline would “reluctantly” stop charging parents to sit next to children<\/a> after a watchdog investigation was opened, but insisted its previous policy complied with laws.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n