The ongoing feud between multimillionaire Elon Musk and Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary turned personal after the latter hurled a controversial remark. Well, the two parties had been in disagreement for a while now, as they debated whether Musk’s Starlink should be installed across Ryanair’s aircraft fleet.
Considering that Ryanair is a budget airline, installing satellite internet across its fleet was seen as unrealistic. The final result, after the Tesla owner made the proposal, was a blunt rejection of the idea.
O’Leary directly cut out any chances of collaborating with Elon Musk live on Irish radio, since installing Starlink would add up to 2 percent of fuel drag for the aircraft. It would mean that Ryanair would have to spend an estimated $200-$250 million annually. In plain terms, it would increase aircraft ticket prices by a dollar per passenger. So it was not at all feasible with the long-term goals of the company.
Speaking on Newstalk, the airline company’s CEO said, “What Elon Musk knows about flights and drag would be zero. He’s an idiot. Very wealthy, but he’s still an idiot. Passengers won’t pay for internet usage. If it’s free, they’ll use it, but they won’t pay €1 each. In other words, about an extra dollar for every passenger we fly, and the reality for us is we can’t afford those costs.” Besides the personal attack on Musk, O’Leary ended up tagging his company too as a ‘cesspit.’
Now, Elon Musk is known to take feuds to the next level. This time, in response to the Ryanair airline fiasco, he ended up creating a poll through a post on X, asking netizens to reveal if he should buy out the ‘most profitable airline’ around. Captioning the witty post, he wrote, “Buy Ryan Air and restore Ryan as their rightful ruler.”
Buy Ryan Air and restore Ryan as their rightful ruler
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 19, 2026
The message was clear about how O’Leary’s direct attack on him did not land on good terms and that Musk was very capable of buying out the whole company. Moreover, since he threatened to restore the airline company to its rightful ruler, it was a clear reference to the company’s original founder, Tony Ryan, who established it in 1984.
Later, Elon Musk shared another follow-up post to add on to the escalation. Taking to X, he wrote, “Should I buy Ryan Air and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?”
In fact, Elon Musk continued to put up a fight against the current Ryanair CEO through multiple of his follow-up posts on X. In a third post, he wrote, “Ryanair CEO is an utter idiot. Fire him.” Adding to the thread of conversation, a netizen commented, “Just buy Ryanair and fire him yourself.” Responding to it, Musk wrote back, “Good idea.”
Ryanair CEO is an utter idiot. Fire him.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2026
Coming to the fate of the Irish airline, the company has not been listed for sale as of now. The low-cost airline is listed on the Euronext index in Dublin. Ryanair has a market capitalization of €30.4 billion. Now, whether the Starlink owner actually ends up following through on his threats is unclear at the moment. But one thing is for certain: he tends to react strongly in the wake of direct jibes thrown at him.
