ov. 14—RYANAIR chief executive Michael O'Leary has pocketed a £20million windfall after cashing in Ryanair shares as the budget airline's bookings take off.

O'Leary exercised options over 2.5million shares just over a week ago and sold them the same day. The transaction gave the Irish businessman a pre-tax profit of €23.3million. The details emerged in a stock exchange filing last Monday after markets closed.

O'Leary was given the share options under a five-year bonus plan agreed in 2014. He has since been awarded an incentive plan that will pay him €100million if shares hit €21 or above for a 28-day period between April 2021 and March 2024. The payout could also be triggered if Ryanair's profits double to €2billion in the same period.

Analysts say O'Leary is in sight of the €100million bonus as Ryanair shares recover to pre-pandemic highs, doubling from €8.52 in March last year to close at €16.88 on Friday.

He is the biggest individual shareholder in Ryanair with a 3.91 per cent stake worth €776million. In addition he has 12.5million share options.

O'Leary has admitted that at the start of the pandemic he feared the airline would run out of cash. But revenues were boosted by a surge in bookings after restrictions were scrapped for vaccinated passengers, reducing half-year losses to €48million, compared to €411million last year. In October, Ryanair carried 11.3million passengers, compared to 4.1million in October last year.

___

(c)2021 the Daily Mail (London)

Visit the Daily Mail (London) at www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.