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myared · 2011-12-04 · Original thread
For those who haven't read the Ryanair story, it's pretty remarkable. The Ryan family had a small commuter flight business in Ireland (what is Ryanair today) and a large, profitable business leasing planes to airlines in the opposite hemisphere during peak demand. When the latter business was ready to IPO, it went really, really badly and the Ryan family had taken out massive loans throwing their entire fortune into question. They appointed a family friend, Michael O'Leary, as CEO of Ryanair and made a deal with him to give him 10% (I think) of all profits. O'Leary came to the US, studied what Southwest was doing, and took it to the extreme. He went on to become one of the most successful CEOs in Europe.

Knowing the story, my reaction to this headline is: wow, through testing, they figured out that people buy the ticket rather than wanting to fill out the CAPTCHA.

Great read: http://www.amazon.com/Ryanair-Story-Controversial-Low-Cost-A...

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