Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has apologized for using the term ‘rapists’ to describe other airlines with high fares, according to reports. His remarks, made during a press conference in Dublin, sparked immediate backlash and calls for an apology from advocacy groups and political figures.

Initial Rejection and Public Backlash

Initially, O’Leary refused to apologize, asserting that he was not trivializing the crime of rape. ‘Since I certainly did not trivialize the heinous crime of rape, I will certainly not be issuing any apology,’ he said last week, as reported by dw.com.

The comments were made during a press conference at Ryanair’s headquarters in Ireland. O’Leary said, ‘You might find some people will choose not to fly with Ryanair — but you know they’ll be overrun with the people abandoning Aer Lingus, Lufthansa, BA, and others desperate to get to Ryanair’s low fares because they can’t afford to fly with high-fare rapists around Europe.’

Political and Advocacy Responses

Ireland’s Taoiseach Michael Martin expressed disappointment at O’Leary’s remarks and urged him to ‘stand back and reflect and listen to the voice of women.’ Martin emphasized that rape is ‘an awful, awful violation of a person, which leaves a terrible trauma,’ according to dw.com. However, Martin did not explicitly call for an apology.

Deputy prime minister Simon Harris described the language as ‘inappropriate’ but also did not demand an apology. Meanwhile, Laura Harmon, a senator from the center-left Labour Party, said O’Leary must apologize for his comments.

Later Apology and Clarification

On Friday, O’Leary released a video apology broadcast by Virgin Media News. In it, he said: ‘I used the term rapists to describe the high fares of our competitor airlines. I was quizzed by the press if I was trivialising rape. I replied by asserting my firm belief that rape is a heinous and terrible crime which cannot be trivialised.’

He continued: ‘I have come to realise, however, that the word I used so carelessly has caused considerable upset and offence to a wide number of people, especially victims and survivors. I want to apologise, sincerely and unreservedly to those people, especially to the survivors. I am truly sorry for the offence and upset I have caused you by my careless use of those words. It won’t happen again.’

O’Leary added that he would try to learn from this mistake and ‘do better in the future.’ His apology came after criticism from Rachel Morrogh, chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, who said his language ‘trivialised sexual violence,’ according to the-independant.com.