Europe’s largest airline is a troll on social media — and it’s working for them

Last month, when a Ryanair passenger tweeted a complaint about the lack of a window by her exit row seat, she might have expected Europe’s largest airline to offer an apology using language straight out of a customer service manual. But this wasn’t British Airways or Lufthansa. It was a no-frills carrier that might best be described to Americans as the Spirit Airlines of Europe — if Spirit had the most savage Twitter presence of any brand in the sky. In response to the window complaint, Ryanair’s account shot back, reposting the passenger’s picture with a sloppy circle drawn around the tiny, round window on the exit door as if to say, “there’s your window.” According to a LinkedIn post by Michael Corcoran, the airline’s head of social media, the reply racked up more than 55m views, mentions in dozens of news articles and a shout-out from Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show.” It was just another day for Corcoran’s team, whose mission is to be the “most talked about brand on social media,” Corcoran said in the post. At the core of their strategy: Don’t sound like the other companies. On Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, the company has endeared itself to millions of fans with its crude call-outs of British prime ministers, subtle digs at customers and general bucking of the typical corporate voice. The voice of the account doesn’t just sound human. It sounds like a hilarious member of Gen Z: fluent in the latest memes, ready to pounce on bad takes and eager to troll for likes. Felicity McCarthy, a social media consultant based in Dublin, said Ryanair’s social media strategy revolves around being “unapologetic” and “a little bit bolshie,” a British word that Macmillan Dictionary defines as “deliberately creating problems and not willing to be helpful.”<br/>