Elon Musk’s Ongoing Banter with Ryanair’s CEO

Elon Musk has stirred up new discussions on social media after sparring with Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary and humorously questioning whether he should acquire the budget airline, following yet another service disruption on X (formerly Twitter).

Details of the Exchange

The interaction took place on Friday, January 16, just hours after X faced technical issues. Ryanair took a jab at Musk by tweeting: “Perhaps you need Wi-Fi, @elonmusk?” This comment seemed to poke fun at the outage, triggering a swift reaction from Musk.

“Should I buy Ryan Air and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?” Musk responded, a tweet that rapidly gained traction and garnered thousands of responses.

Reactions from Social Media Users

Humorous responses flooded in, with one individual encouraging Musk to proceed with the purchase, while another quipped that Ryanair would entice him with a low price but later charge for “all kinds of extras.” A third comment joked, “Best way to become a millionaire is to be a billionaire and buy an airline.”

Background on the Dispute

This online back-and-forth traces back to earlier comments from O’Leary, who dismissed the idea of equipping Ryanair’s fleet of over 600 aircraft with Starlink satellite internet. He expressed worries over fuel efficiency and costs, suggesting that the service could cost the airline approximately $250 million each year.

“You need to put an antenna on the fuselage; it comes with a 2% fuel penalty because of the weight and drag,” O’Leary remarked. “We don’t believe our passengers will pay for Wi-Fi on a typical one-hour flight.”

Musk’s Response to O’Leary

Musk, whose company SpaceX operates Starlink, strongly disagreed, labelling O’Leary as “misinformed” and accusing the airline of not accurately assessing the fuel implications of the technology. He intensified the exchange by stating, “Ryanair CEO is an utter idiot. Fire him.”

When a follower suggested Musk should simply acquire Ryanair and replace O’Leary, Musk responded enthusiastically, saying, “Good idea.”

Musk has consistently argued that in-flight connectivity is evolving from a luxury to a fundamental expectation, warning that airlines lacking internet access could lose customers to better-connected competitors.