When the British authorities tightened airport security rules last August, in the wake of a suspected plot to blow up airlines, Mr O'Leary gave the government a seven-day ultimatum.

"The terrorists must be rolling around the caves of Pakistan laughing at the British government and the British people at the moment," he was quoted as saying.

True to its boss's words, Ryanair went on to sue the British government for $6.2 million in damages for the delays incurred.

Some might argue that the decision is rich coming from a man who began his professional life as a tax accountant, and, more importantly, from an airline head who should hold the passengers' safety in high esteem. But it is hard to ignore Mr O'Leary's no-nonsense management style and the fragility of the empire he has created.

During a one-and-a-half hour flying visit to Malta on Thursday it was evident it was not just his airline tickets which come at a low cost, but also his publicity.

Draped in a Maltese flag and pulling faces as soon as he walked into the Malta International Airport conference room, he had photographers and cameramen eating out of the palm of his hand.

Wearing jeans and an open shirt, he embraced the impeccably dressed Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech and MIA boss Peter Bolech - despite his airline's vociferous criticism of Malta's airport charges over the past year.

During a powerpoint presentation outlining Ryanair's successes, he pulled at his hair and mimed "oh my God" when Air Malta's fares were compared to his airline's.

But Air Malta and the government have certainly not been the first in Mr O'Leary's line of fire. One of Ireland's wealthiest men, Mr O'Leary, 45, has managed to upset most competing airlines, the Catholic Church, his crew, trade unions, governments and several of his own passengers. So why does he love these run-ins?

"I'm just a nice guy who's misunderstood," he tells The Times.

"It's actually publicity for Ryanair. I'm not doing something new as (Virgin boss) Richard Branson did it for years. If you make a lot of noise and fight with a lot of people you generate a lot of cheap publicity. All we do is go around, create a bit of controversy, do silly things, get your photograph taken in silly places and reduce the advertising money - and like that we can afford to keep the prices down."

Ryanair is a success story. While the events of September 11 spelt the death knell for some airlines, the Irish airline posted record profits and is now known as Europe's most profitable airline.

Ryanair started in 1985 with 51 people and two aircraft and carried 5,000 passengers between the UK and Ireland. Eleven years after Mr O'Leary took control, it is now Europe's most profitable carrier, with 2,600 staff, over 100 aircraft, and 233 routes throughout Europe. Despite often selling tickets at next to nothing, the airline makes its money because it has a lower cost base than other airlines. Mr O'Leary says his airline operates large aircraft that were bought in the aftermath of September 11, and therefore prices were cheap.

"We operate with 25-minute turnarounds, which means we get two more flights per day per aircraft than anybody else. We also sell tickets across the internet so we don't give a share to travel agents.

"I want to follow Ikea and Wal-Mart and keep growing. It's only by growing that we can afford to continue pushing down our costs. Pile it high and sell it cheap," he explains.

His ultimate goal is to have free airline tickets all across the board. The target is to have fixed costs on aircraft, crews and landing rights and fly full planes - and make money selling passengers insurance, car hire and onboard soft drinks.

The fact that Ryanair was recently voted travellers' least favourite airline in a poll by online travel information service TripAdvisor.com is certainly not upsetting him.

"You get some obscure website which claims some 4,000 people participated, when it's more like 400 people, and the reality is that you get more publicity in these kinds of surveys by finishing last than first," he says, quipping that the respondents were probably all British Airways employees!

The only survey that really matters are the passengers who are queuing aboard our aircraft, Mr O'Leary insists. Ryanair has a huge price advantage over the competition and is now 33 per cent larger than British Airways and growing at 25 per cent per annum.

"British Airways' average fare is €285 while Ryanair's is €40. BA's punctuality is 72 per cent and ours is 86 per cent. I can't understand why anybody flies British Airways." To journalists, he talks deliberately using outrageous quotes that fly from his mouth faster than a jet. For example he has no qualms in telling The Times that once a Ryanair ticket is sold "we don't care if you don't show up" as there will be no refunds.

It therefore came as no surprise to hear Ryanair's loud protests against Europe's tightened airport security rules. The very fact that the measures were only introduced at airports and not the London underground or the Euro tunnel didn't make sense, Mr O'Leary argues.

Body searching children going on holiday with their parents is useless, he says.

"They are not likely to be terrorist suspects. The governments over-reacted; they choked up all the UK airports and caused horrendous delays to all our passengers. None of these measures had any effect on security."

Mr O'Leary describes as "inevitable" the UK's decision to partially lift its ban on liquids in hand luggage on airline flights from next week in a further easing of heightened security rules.

"The security measures introduced in August were stupid. The idea that the normal hand luggage approved by IATA was whittled down by 25 per cent by the British authorities had no effect on safety whatsoever."

The future of Air Malta is inevitably raised, with Mr O'Leary saying he was fully aware of the government's endeavours to protect the national airline.

"For Ryanair to succeed, we don't need Air Malta to fail. I think Air Malta will push their prices down because of competition from Ryanair," he says. But despite his momentary diplomatic tone, he never misses an opportunity to criticise the other airlines.

"What Air Malta has been trying to do is to frighten politicians and the airport authorities to prevent competition. Air Malta has very little support in Malta. People are fed up being ripped off with these high fares. At least now they have a choice. It hasn't worked, and, frankly, the politicians deserve great credit. It's a tough and brave decision."

He dismisses talk that national airlines should also have a kind of social function and fly to unprofitable routes.

"You'd be very wrong if airlines like BA say they do - they charge among the highest fares anywhere in Europe and, frankly, airlines like Air Malta haven't done a very good job for tourism."

Mr O'Leary is also aware that Air Malta is undergoing a restructuring process, and despite its successes to trim costs, it has fallen victim to a hefty fuel bill.

What sort of advice would he give?

"Continue cutting costs. It's not acceptable to blame everything on the fuel costs. Air Malta was losing money when oil was at $25 a barrel while charging ridiculous prices. You have to ask why the two most profitable airlines in Europe - Ryanair and Easyjet - are charging the lowest fares with no fuel surcharge. Don't cut things like maintenance and safety but get rid of overstaffing and travel agents."

The Ryanair boss also criticised the "ridiculously high air taxes" for flights leaving from Malta and says that the European courts could soon order the government to eliminate such charges.

"Why is the government taxing its citizens to leave the island? That's insane. I've heard of governments taxing visitors but not its own citizens to leave the country."

With a 20,000 Ryanair free seat sale for passengers leaving from Malta, which came into effect yesterday, Mr O'Leary is conscious of the fact that the taxes might not act as such a deterrent.

Asked whether he intends to stick to his plans to leave the airline in 2008, he replies:

"I keep saying I will leave the airline some time, in the next two to three years. If the offer for Aer Lingus is successful I may have to stay a bit longer. I will leave the airline when it's not growing rapidly and when it's getting dull and boring.

"But at the moment it's very exciting and as long as it remains so, and there's somebody out there to fight with, then I intend to stay around. When it stops being so I will hand it to someone who is less exciting but is more professional."

And what does he plan to do when he quits Ryanair?

"I will probably get arrested for opening my big mouth somewhere or upsetting somebody. There are a lot of politicians and trade unions around Europe who would love to see me arrested and in jail. So they'll probably succeed at some stage," he says, grinning from ear to ear.

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