Various airlines - Ice Bucket Challenge

Various airlines - Ice Bucket Challenge

Business leaders around the world have been joining the thousands of people taking part in the ice bucket challenge in which participants are doused in freezing water before nominating another person to do the same - all in aid of the ALS Association.

Virgin Atlantic-founder Richard Branson was among the first airline leaders to take on the challenge (video here ; 40,000+ views so far) and made a wide-ranging nomination by asking all 60,000 Virgin employees – “from the cabin crew to the pilots, the train drivers to the directors” – to do the same. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary even subjected himself to 14 buckets of ice water, raising GBP 10,000 as he took the challenge outside the company offices. The Ryanair CEO was his usual self, saying: “You can’t match our fares. You can’t even freeze your fares. The least you can do is freeze your nuts!” (video here ; 66,000 views so far).

O’Leary challenged the CEOs of Europe’s three largest full-service network carriers – Willie Walsh (IAG), Alexandre de Juniac (AFKL) and Garston Spohr (LH), with Willie Walsh being the only one to respond to the challenge (video ).

Other airline CEO’s that have also responded to Ice Bucket Challenge nominations include Doug Parker (AA), Jeff Smisek (UA), Brad Tilden (Alaska), Ben Baldanza (Spirit), Camiel Eurlings (KLM) and Azran Osman Rani (AirAsia X), while staff at Finnair did the icebucket challenge on the stairs of a Finnair aircraft (video here ) and even onboard a Finnair flight. For a full overview see the SimpliFlying website .