Ryanair passengers flying from Liverpool to Dublin yesterday received a shock after CEO Michael O’Leary boarded the flight.
The flight was delayed by 30 minutes as they waited for Davy Russell, a jockey, to board following the Grand National.
After the horse that O’Leary bet on, Davy Russell’s Tiger Roll, won the steeplechase in a photo finish, he decided to let the passengers join in the celebrations.
He took to the tannoy to apologise for the lateness of the flight which is when he offered the amazing freebie.
Of course, the free bar came with a slight catch.
He explained on the flights: “Today we won the Grand National so, unusually on board this flight, there’s going to be a free bar, which I am personally going to pay for, but you’re all restricted to one free drink only.”
“So free bar, and we may need to do a circuit over Dublin to get it all done.
“Thank you and apologies once again.”
It is an unusual offer seeing as the airline has recently been bidding to reduce alcohol served on flights and airports.
This is due to the increase in passenger arrests over drunken behaviour.
Luckily, the passengers onboard would be saving £5, the cost of the drink.
Whilst it would have cost O’Leary almost £1,000, he collected over half a million pounds from winning the horse race so may not break the bank for the owner.
However, O’Leary famously fired the jockey in 2014 as his retained jockey.
He continued: “It is a wonderful day for Davy Russell, one of the best jockeys in Ireland for the last 10 to 15 years.
“It’s known we’ve had our ups and our downs, but he has always come back better than ever.
“It’s well known we parted company over the most legendary cup of tea in racing. That was four or five years ago, and it says much about Davy’s resilience the way he bounced back.
“In a group of elite Irish jockeys Davy is right up there – his career has been up and down, with periods of achievement but some lows, too, and it is the way he keeps coming back. He could have had a huff and given up, but after a couple of quiet years he has come back.
“Now he is riding better than ever before and will be champion jockey in Ireland. AP McCoy rode one winner of this race in 20 years, Ruby has won one, Barry has too, and now Davy has and it’s a great thing to have on your CV.”
