Ryanair’s war of words with Elon Musk has reached a new level.
The Irish airline is hand-delivering a free ticket to X’s Dublin office for Musk, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said in a Wednesday press conference.
Ryanair has taken advantage of the feud by launching a “Big ‘Idiot’ Sale” with 100,000 tickets starting at £16.99, or about $23.
Musk and O’Leary, arguably the world’s most outspoken businessmen, have called each other idiots in a weeklong feud over Starlink in-flight WiFi.
“I’ve included myself and him in this ‘Big Idiot’ seat sale,” O’Leary said Wednesday, referring to an ad that shows the pair brawling.
“I suspect he’s a bigger idiot than me, but nevertheless, he probably thinks I’m a bigger idiot than him.”
After trading insults over the past days, Musk posted a poll on X on Monday asking if he should buy Ryanair and install a CEO named Ryan. About three-quarters of the roughly 950,000 voters said yes.
However, European Union rules say that the bloc’s airlines must be at least 50% owned by EU nationals.
O’Leary has also been known to make provocative statements to help promote his airline.
After Musk compared O’Leary to a chimpanzee on Tuesday, the Ryanair boss responded at the press conference, saying: “I think it’s somewhat unfair on the chimp community. But chimp chump, as long as it increases Ryanair bookings through January, February, and March, it’s all good fun and entertainment.”
“It is very good for our bookings,” O’Leary also said. “We love these PR spats that drive bookings on Ryanair.”
The quarrel started last Wednesday after O’Leary told Reuters he wouldn’t join other airlines installing Starlink. The following day, he told the Irish radio station Newstalk that it would cost the airline up to $250 million because adding the terminal to a plane would affect its aerodynamics and increase fuel costs.
He said this would amount to a 2% increase, but a SpaceX executive said in an X post that it was actually 0.2%.
As a budget airline, Ryanair focuses on keeping costs as low as possible to offer cheaper airfares. It turns a profit by keeping its planes flying frequently with low turnaround times at airports, and selling extras, including scratchcards.
Plus, it only flies short-haul routes, so O’Leary doesn’t think passengers would be too interested in in-flight WiFi.
“If it results in a fuel drag, it is something we would never go near,” he added on Wednesday.
However, in the press conference, he also called Starlink a “terrific system.”
O’Leary said the airline is continuing discussions with Starlink and other providers, including Amazon, but it would adopt in-flight WiFi “only in a way where it will lower our costs.”
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