Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has said he is “truly sorry” for describing rival airlines as “high-fare rapists”.
He had previously refused to apologise to a rape crisis centre which criticised him for the comments.
O’Leary had made the remark earlier this month while talking to journalists ahead of Ryanair’s yearly meeting with shareholders.
Following the comments, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) wrote to him asking for an apology, in a letter seen by the BBC.
O’Leary had originally said that some people were “desperate to get to Ryanair’s low fares because they can’t afford to fly with the high-fare rapists around Europe”.
He subsequently defended his choice of words when asked by a reporter from the Press Association whether the language was appropriate.
“British Airways, Lufthansa, and everybody else’s high fares, I’ll happily offend them on a regular basis,” he had added.
Asked whether it would offend sexual assault victims, he said rape was “a terrible crime”.
In a video posted on Friday, O’Leary said that, over the last ten days, he had had “conversations with family and friends, both inside and outside Ryanair”.
“I have come to realise however that the word that I used so carelessly has caused considerable upset and offence to a wide number of people, especially to victims and survivors.
“I want to apologise, sincerely and unreservedly, to those people, especially to the survivors.”
O’Leary described his choice of language as “careless”, and said “it won’t happen again”.
“I will try to learn from this mistake, and do better in future.”
Following O’Leary’s first comments, the DRCC’s chief executive Rachel Morrogh had written to O’Leary accusing him of trying to get a headline with his comments.
She said the DRCC had received calls from rape victims who were “upset and distressed because of what you said”.
She offered O’Leary training on the impact of sexual violence and urged him to apologise.
“I can’t imagine you would ever use the term so flippantly again if you truly understood [what] it was like to survive rape,” she wrote.
In response, O’Leary had said: “I am quite clear that no remarks of mine could possibly trivialise the heinous crime of rape.”
He added that as he had not “trivialised the heinous crime of rape” he would “not be issuing any apology or accepting your offer of training”.
It was not the first time O’Leary had offended people while talking about his business.
In 2004, he reportedly called the owners of Stansted Airport “a bunch of overcharging rapists”, external in a row over airport charges.
He has also previously called some of his own staff “lazy bastards” and once said to passengers looking for a refund “we don’t want to hear your sob stories”.
In June, he said the airline would “reluctantly” stop charging parents to sit next to children after a watchdog investigation was opened, but insisted its previous policy complied with laws.
