Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has been publicly feuding with billionaire Elon Musk for several days. The low-cost carrier announced that it will hold a sale of special tickets dedicated to Musk.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has been publicly feuding with billionaire Elon Musk for several days. The low-cost carrier announced that it will hold a sale of special tickets dedicated to Musk.
The feud between O’Leary and Musk began when the Ryanair CEO said he was not interested in installing Starlink technology on the company’s planes, Business Insider reports.
In an interview with Irish radio station Newstalk, Michael O’Leary said the service would require an antenna that would make its planes less aerodynamic. It would add an estimated £200-250 million to fuel costs. He said customers attracted by the low-cost airline would have to pay an extra £1 per ticket, and he feared passengers would not like it.
In response, Elon Musk launched a poll on X (Twitter) asking whether he should buy Ryanair. He added that he would «reinstate Ryan as the rightful ruler» — Ryanair is named after one of its co-founders, Tony Ryan.
Ryanair, whose CEO has been publicly feuding with Elon Musk in recent days, announced on Tuesday the launch of a «big idiot ticket sale, specifically for Elon and other idiots on X.»
Musk said O’Leary miscalculated the additional fuel costs due to aerodynamic changes caused by the installation of the Starlink terminal. O’Leary, known for his controversial behavior, responded with a series of insults.
«Very rich, but still an idiot,» O’Leary said on Irish radio, adding that Musk had «absolutely» no idea how to run an airline. Elon Musk, an even more notorious brawler, also called O’Leary an «absolute idiot,» called for his firing and resumed talk of buying Ryanair.
Ryanair’s social media account, which often resorts to jokes and provocations, responded with a series of jokes about Musk. In one of the latest, the company announced «Big Idiot» tickets, which are designed «especially for Elon» and other idiots from X (Twitter).
The offer includes 100,000 one-way tickets for £16.99 on flights to Basel (Switzerland), Birmingham (UK) and Cologne (Germany).
«Buy your ticket now before Musk does!!!,» the company wrote in a press release.
Ryanair is valued at nearly $36 billion, a fraction of Elon Musk’s $681 billion net worth. However, it’s highly unlikely he’ll be able to buy it, as Ryanair is an Irish company that is part of the EU. By law, airlines must be majority-owned by EU citizens or EU member states.
«Musk knows even less about airline ownership rules than he does about airplane aerodynamics,» noted Michael O’Leary.
Recall that in 2023, Ryanair stated that it was ready to attract funds to Ukraine and lead the recovery of the Ukrainian air transportation market, investing about $3 billion.
