Lufthansa ad campaign ridicules Ryanair over pilot fiasco

Lufthansa took a swipe at low-cost rival Ryanair with a full-page newspaper advertisement mocking the Irish carrier over the pilot shortage that’s led to the scrapping of 2,100 flights. The ad, which ran on page two of German daily Handelsblatt on Friday, depicts a disgruntled looking Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary under the headline “O’Deary!” and invites customers affected by the cancellations to defect to Lufthansa’s own Eurowings discount unit. Eurowings also took to Facebook and Twitter, asking customers if their booking had been a “Ryanfall,” a play on words relating to the German for “flop.” Ryanair is no stranger to well-aimed advertising barbs of its own, painting “Bye-bye Lufthansa” on the side of a Boeing Co. 737 when it entered the German market about 15 years ago. In recent weeks O’Leary has also attacked Lufthansa over its role in what he says is a state-led German “stitch up” in dividing up the assets of Air Berlin Plc, referring to the insolvent company’s CEO Thomas Winkelmann as a “minion” in thrall to the larger company. Ryanair lacks the market penetration in Germany that it has achieved elsewhere, though it this year pushed into Frankfurt and Munich, Lufthansa two main hubs.<br/>