"Really, you only need one pilot," he tells Bloomberg Businessweek in the Sept. 6 edition. "Let's take out the second pilot. Let the bloody computer fly it." What happens if the pilot has a heart attack? One member of the cabin crew on all Ryanair flights would be trained to land a plane. "If the pilot has an emergency, he rings the bell, he calls her in," O'Leary says. "She could take over."
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Earlier this summer, he announced that he was planning to replace the last 10 rows of seats on his aircraft with 15 rows of upright "standing seats" -- vertical benches with shoulder harnesses and arm rests -- which would allow him to pack 30 more passengers onto each plane.
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O'Leary now says that after taking a look at the drawings, he has decided vertical seats won't save enough room. Instead, he has a better idea -- replace the last 10 rows with a standing cabin, outfitted with various handrails, much like a New York City subway car, only without the benches and the panhandlers. The increased capacity, he says, would lower fares by 20 percent to 25 percent.
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O'Leary downplays the threat that turbulence would presumably pose for standing passengers. "Yes, somebody could get injured," he says. "I don't say that lightly. But we'd do exactly what we do in every other case: `Ladies and gentlemen' -- BING, BONG -- `we're going to have some slight turbulence. Hold on to the rail tightly.'"