Southwest Airlines founder mentored RyanAir CEO. How are the airlines so radically different?

While on our trip to South America, my daughter and I had the opportunity to meet an amazing family from Northern Ireland on holiday in Argentina for two weeks (SEE: The unexpected best part of our trip to South America). Their family of five would be visiting some of Argentina’s top destinations, including Iguazu Falls, Tierra del Fuego National Park, and Argentinian Patagonia. I was be lying if I said I wasn’t a little envious of all they planned to do.

Among a number of topics, we talked about travel. After discussing their awesome operational upgrade to premium economy due to a British Airways equipment swap on their long-haul to Ezeiza, we moved on to the topic of Ryanair. The ultra-low-cost carrier is…