Ryanair CEO: Hungarian ministers are like Dumb and Dumber

In early June, the Hungarian government announced that it would impose an excess profit tax on some sectors of the economy, including airlines. In response, the Irish Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary, has repeatedly said that ‘Economic Minister Márton Nagy is an idiot’ for wanting to tax something that does not exist. Read below for more.

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Ryanair CEO insults Hungarian ministers again

According to O’Leary, they have no extra profit, and not much profit either. On the contrary, Ryanair has made a loss of 1,500,000,000 EUR over the last two years due to closures. The Ryanair chief has now given an interview to Euronews. In it, he also suggests that Gergely Gulyás, PM’s chief of staff, might be trying to favour Wizz Air by urging people to choose the Hungarian airline rather than the Irish one. O’Leary says that Wizz Air is more expensive than Ryanair, which is why they are the most popular airline in Hungary.

“These two Hungarian ministers are like Dumb and Dumber in that Jim Carrey film, if they think people will happily pay the extra tax and choose a more expensive airline overnight,”

says O’Leary.

Euronews also asked him why he was so vocal about the tax. He said that “this is the only way to talk to stupid politicians who want to tax their citizens senselessly. We will always expose and embarrass these politicians as they pass stupid laws and lie to the people that they shouldn’t have to pay the extra taxes. Only when Márton Nagy repeals his idiotic tax will I keep quiet.”

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Ryanair urges passengers to make complaints

Ryanair passengers have received a letter from the airline, encouraging them to write a protest letter to Minister Márton Nagy, RTL.hu reports. In a message, Ryanair explains the reasons for this unusual action. The airline says they need the passengers’ help to abolish “this idiotic and unfair tax.” At the end, a template message can be generated and sent to kommunikacio@mk.gov.hu, the address of the Prime Minister’s Office.

The pre-written message, addressed personally to Márton Nagy, in English, will include, among other things:

• “We Hungarian people and our families will now be forced to pay this unjustified tax because of your greed and stupidity.”
• “I protest against the new “excess profit tax” on loss-making passenger airlines flying from Hungary. No such tax is justified when Ryanair and Wizz Air are reporting record losses.”
• “All you are doing is increasing the cost of air travel for Hungarian passengers, their families and visitors to the country.

Source: euronews.com, rtl.hu