A war of words between Michael O’Leary and Elon Musk over Starlink has spilled onto social media, with Ryanair turning insults into publicity and €16.99 "idiot" fares.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has doubled down on his criticism of installing Starlink wifi on the airline’s aircraft, brushing off recent insults from Elon Musk and claiming the spat resulted in a “wonderful boost in publicity” for Europe’s largest low-cost carrier.
The latest clash follows a public back-and-forth on X after Musk joked over the weekend about buying Ryanair and “putting a Ryan in charge,” a remark that reignited debate over whether the airline should adopt SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet system.
As has been the case with past online blowups, Musk's ire directed at Ryanair seems to stem from a failed business deal behind the scenes.
Speaking on Wednesday, O’Leary said he was surprised by Musk’s reaction, insisting Ryanair’s position on in-flight connectivity had been consistently pragmatic rather than personal.
“I don’t quite know why he took such umbrage over it,” O’Leary said. “We have been in discussion with Starlink, his satellite system, for over 12 months now. It is a very good system. We like the Starlink system.”
The problem, he said, was not the technology but the cost.
According to O’Leary, installing Starlink across Ryanair’s fleet would cost between €200 million and €250 million a year, once installation and fuel penalties are factored in.
“The problem is if you put in onboard aircraft, there is a cost of about 200 or 250 million a year including the cost of installation and then the fuel drag,” he said.
Ryanair has repeatedly argued that Starlink hardware would undermine the airline’s ultra-low-cost model by increasing fuel consumption. O’Leary said aircraft would need two antennas mounted on the fuselage, adding drag that could significantly inflate fuel bills.
“You have to put not one but two aerials on top of the aircraft fuselage, that will have a between 1–2% fuel drag,” he said. “We spent between 5 and 5.1 billion on fuel and it would increase our fuel bill to about 100 to 200 million.”
He dismissed suggestions that such drag would be negligible — as suggested by Musk — noting that airlines have spent decades fine-tuning aircraft aerodynamics.
“Tiny little improvements in fuel drag result in very significant fuel savings,” O’Leary said. “But tiny impediments, like aerials hanging off aircraft, would add to cost.”
By contrast, he added, Musk appeared to underestimate the complexity involved. “Mr Musk thinks that aerials don’t add to drag,” O’Leary said.
Passenger demand is another sticking point. While Starlink has argued that most travellers would pay for onboard Wi-Fi, Ryanair’s experience suggests otherwise.
“The Starlink people believe that 90% of our passengers would happily pay for wifi access,” O’Leary said. “Our experience sadly tells us that less than 10% of our passengers pay for this access, therefore we can’t afford to shoulder the costs.”
Still, he left the door open to a deal — on one condition. “If Starlink wants to fit our aircraft and pay for the fuel drag, we’d happily put them on board,” he said.
He also reiterated that integrating satellite internet into aircraft is far from straightforward.
“This is not simple,” O’Leary said. “If you start drilling holes into aircraft fuselages, it is very expensive, it is technically difficult.”
'I get called a twat a lot'
The disagreement escalated over the weekend after Musk responded on X with personal insults aimed at O’Leary, prompting the Ryanair chief to accuse the platform’s owner of overreacting.
“I thought that was a reasonably measured response,” O’Leary said. “Elon Musk apparently took great umbrage and resorted to insulting me on X over the weekend, calling me an idiot… [and a] retarded twat.”
Rather than backing down, Ryanair leaned into the controversy. O’Leary said the airline had benefited from a surge in attention following the exchange.
“But we do want to thank him,” he said. “We have had over 3–4 million hits on the seat sale launch yesterday, which is the Big Idiot seat sale.”
The promotion offers 100,000 seats for €16.99, which O’Leary said underlined Europe’s dominance in low-cost travel.
“There are no airfares like this in North America,” he said.
In a further tongue-in-cheek gesture, O’Leary said Ryanair staff would visit X’s Dublin offices later on Wednesday.
“We are, later on this morning, going around to the X offices at Cumberland House to give Elon Musk a free Ryanair ticket,” he said, “to thank him for the wonderful boost in publicity.”
'Feel free to invest!'
While EU ownership rules prevent non-European citizens from holding a majority stake in European airlines, O’Leary said Musk would be welcome as an investor.
“We’re a publicly owned company, he’s free to do so anytime,” O’Leary said. “Non-European citizens can not own a majority of a European airline, but if he wants to invest in Ryanair we will certainly think it’s a great investment.”
Despite the personal tone of the exchange, O’Leary insisted he was unfazed by Musk’s remarks and sceptical about the broader state of online discourse.
“I do believe social media, X in particular, is a cesspit,” he said. “There is nothing Elon Musk can say to me that my teenage kids haven’t said to me… I’m well able to take my own medicine.”
