Ryanair is dangling a bonus worth roughly $300 million for its billionaire CEO — as long as he hits his targets

Michael O'Leary, the outspoken CEO of Ryanair, already owns roughly 4% of the airline (1), a stake worth more than $1 billion. He may soon add another nine-figure windfall to his fortune.

Europe's largest low-cost carrier said Monday (2) that it is close to finalizing a contract extension that would keep the 65-year-old CEO in his seat until 2032. The deal includes a share-option package that could be worth about $300 million if "very ambitious" profit or share-price targets are met.

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Ryanair outlined the plan in its full-year results (3), which showed pre-tax profit jumped 40% to a record €2.26 billion, despite Boeing delivery delays and the war in Iran.

The proposed package would give O'Leary the right to buy more than 10 million shares at a discount if he meets stretch goals the company has not yet disclosed. Ryanair said the strike price, the fixed price an employee pays to exercise stock options regardless of where the shares later trade, would be set at €27.42 on February 27 (4), before the conflict began.

Resuscitating the stock

For a company built on stripping away almost everything nonessential and charging extra for it, O'Leary's proposed pay package is fitting. Almost every part hinges on performance.

Ryanair shares are down over 20% (5) year-to-date, but if they recover to their pre-war levels by 2032, O'Leary's options would be worth around €274 million, or about $318 million.

O'Leary's current contract, signed in December 2022 (6), required Ryanair shares to trade above €21 for 28 consecutive days, or annual after-tax profit to exceed €2.2 billion. He cleared the share-price target last May (7), and the company has now cleared the profit goal as well.

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Ballooning pay packages for high-flying CEOs

O'Leary has long dismissed criticism of his compensation by comparing it with pay in other industries. In a 2024 interview with the Wall Street Journal (8), he put it in more colorful terms.

"The obvious question is, well, is anybody worth $100 million over five years?" O'Leary said. "If premiership footballers are earning f—ing 20 million a year and [French soccer star Kylian] Mbappé is being paid 130 million to go play football for f—ing Real Madrid, then I think my contract is very good value for Ryanair shareholders."