Ryanair’s marketing boss boasted of taking ten flights in a week and last night enjoyed a ‘deserved’ pint of Guinness as 400,000 customers had their trips cancelled.
Kenny Jacobs told Facebook friends of his ‘busy week’ jetsetting across Europe and was watching Barcelona in the Champions League as the crisis emerged, MailOnline can reveal.
Mr Jacobs was in a pub last night after sitting next to his boss Michael O’Leary at an extraordinary press conference in Dublin where Europe’s largest airline cancelled 2,024 flights before the end of October.
He posted an image of his half-drunk Guinness with the caption ‘a pint of plain is your only man’ – a reference to the famous Irish poem ‘The Workman’s Friend’ about taking solace in stout when times are hard.
The self-proclaimed ‘badboy’ of marketing also ‘liked’ supportive comments from friends who told him he ‘deserved’ a pint after ‘a tough few days’.
Today Ryanair customers described being left up to £1,500 out of pocket and stranded abroad after receiving texts telling them their flights were cancelled – with 250,000 told they are not eligible for compensation.
Kenny Jacobs (right with Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary) boasted of taking ten flights in a week when airline insiders claim the cancellation crisis had already started
Mr Jacobs poses with Ryanair’s Head of Communications Robin Kiely next to one of the company’s planes
Mr Jacobs was in a pub last night and posted an image of his half-drunk Guinness with the caption ‘a pint of plain is your only man’ – a reference to the famous Irish poem ‘The Workman’s Friend’ about taking solace in stout when times are hard
His open Facebook page boasted of his busy week taking ten flights across Europe including to a trip to watch Barcelona play Juventus last week.
The self-proclaimed ‘badboy’of marketing poses with a tie around his forehead while in France
After holidaying in the Algarve at the end of August he said he was seeing David Gray in Dublin on September 4 before he flew to Munich the following morning.
Later that day he took a plane to London where he checked in at the £259-a-night Laslett hotel in Notting Hill.
After stopping at the London Stock Exchange he then travelled home to Dublin and told Facebook friends he was seeing Tori Amos in concert.
On Monday September 11 he was in Madrid before travelling to Barcelona, where the next day he enjoyed a beer and a Champions League match at the world famous Camp Nou Stadium, where Barcelona were playing Juventus.
He then took a plane to Paris and then back to Ireland.
Last Thursday he wrote on Facebook about how he had flown from Dublin to Berlin to Hamburg to Dublin and ‘back in the office for 3.45pm’, adding: ‘Busy time of year. 10 flights this week’.
Kenny Jacobs posted the updates to his open Facebook page as up to 400,000 passengers were forced to endure cancelled flights, queues and poor customer service.
A Ryanair pilot told MailOnline today that the business was already cancelling flights as early as Sunday September 10.
He said: ‘Ryanair blamed weather in Italy yet cancelled numerous flights not anywhere near Italy’.
MailOnline has asked Ryanair to comment on his claims.
Ryanair flights are being cancelled for the next six weeks hitting 400,000 customers
Kenny was in Barcelona watching the football last week according to this Facebook post
Mr Jacobs’ jetsetting has been laid bare in a series of Facebook posts
The budget airline has denied this and says its cancellation campaign started yesterday and will run for the next six weeks.
Outspoken Mr Jacobs has been one of Michael O’Leary’s most trusted advisors and sits on the board at Ryanair.
In May this year he told a trade magazine that he is ‘a bit of a bad boy in the industry’ and believes brands don’t need to be loved to be successful.
The Irishman joined Ryanair in 2014 because he ‘loves discount brands’ after 20 years working for Metro Cash & Carry, Tesco and Moneysupermarket.com.
He told Marketing Week: ‘I don’t think I’m ever going to be the marketing director for a luxury brand because I love discount brands and I think the consumer is moving towards discount brands.
‘That’s why Primark and H&M are some of the fastest growing fashion brands, that’s why Hyundai is the UK’s fastest selling car and that’s why Ryanair is Europe’s fastest growing and biggest airline’.
But the latest scandal to hit Mr O’Leary’s business is causing huge damage to its reputation with customers leaving a one-star review almost every minute on the firm’s Facebook page to get round the ban on public visitor posts.
The colleagues muck about on a trip to Europe last year outside a grand church