Ryanair is an Irish discount airline serving Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East that is similar to Spirit Airlines in the United States. True to the saying, "you get what you pay for," Ryanair offers no frills.
When the airline's CEO Michael O'Leary was asked in an interview on Irish radio program The Hard Shoulder about adding antenna for Elon Musk's SpaceX Starlink satellites to his aircraft to provide flyers with Wi-Fi, O'Leary broke down the cost and declared it not economically advantageous.
O'Leary said:
"What Elon Musk knows about flights and drag would be zero. We've already had Boeing confirm we have to put an aerial antenna on top of the aircraft; now, that will cost us about a 2% fuel drag."
"Our fuel bill a year is five billion; it would cost us about $200, $250 million a year. In other words, about an extra dollar for every passenger we fly and the reality for us is we can't afford those costs."
"Passengers won't pay for internet, for internet usage. If it's free, they'll use it, but they won't pay €1 each to use the internet. So we're not putting it on board."
You can hear O'Leary's comments here:
After being told that Musk—who is an investor, not an inventor or an engineer—called him "misinformed," O'Leary responded:
"I frankly wouldn't pay any attention to anything that Elon Musk puts on that cesspit of his called X. He was the guy who advocated to getting Donald Trump elected."
O'Leary went on to add:
"I would pay no attention whatsoever to Elon Musk. He's an idiot. Very wealthy, but still an idiot."
The Ryanair boss garnered support for his take on Musk.
@newstalkfm/Instagram
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In response, Musk lashed out on X, calling for O'Leary to be fired.
During a subsequent outage on X, the Ryanair X account poked Musk back.
Musk then did exactly what he did to solve his problems with Twitter—threaten to buy Ryanair.
Although Musk misspelled Ryanair as Ryan Air.
He also referred to O'Leary using the same ableist slur MAGA Republican President Donald Trump has been repeatedly criticized for using.
@elonmusk/X
In response, O'Leary held a press conference in Dublin, Ireland, Wednesday where they announced a new fare especially for Elon Musk.
O'Leary told the press:
"If he wants to invest in Ryanair, we would think it's a very good investment. Mr. Musk is welcome to buy shares, but he can't take control."
European Union rules bar non-citizens of the EU from owning a major stake in a European airline.
Coupled with flashy graphics including a mock-up of Musk and O'Leary, the Ryanair CEO also announced the "Great idiot seat sale especially for Elon Musk and any other idiots on X." The sale offers 100,000 one-way tickets from €16.99 ($19.93) for travel during February, March, and April.
The Ryanair X account announced the special fare.
The account banner image was also changed on X to include the images O'Leary used during his press conference.
@Ryanair/X
O'Leary was clearly unbothered by Musk's bluster. He told the press:
"Elon Musk called me a [r-word slur] tw*t. All I have to say to Musk is, he'd have to join a very, very, very long queue of people who think I'm a [r-word slur] tw*t, including my four teenage children."
People gave the win to O'Leary and Ryanair.
@capopp/Bluesky
@Farah_web3/X
@headdoc39/Bluesky
@danielsugarman/Bluesky
O'Leary told the press he welcomed Musk's tantrum and insults.
"It is very good for our bookings. We love these PR spats that drive bookings on Ryanair."
Their Big Idiot seat sale has reportedly had over 400 million hits since being launched.
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