Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary launched a “Great Idiots” seat sale on Tuesday — aimed at Elon Musk and his supporters — after the Starlink boss targeted O’Leary for passing on a suggestion to install the satellite-based internet service on his fleet of commercial jets.
In an X post on Tuesday, the Dublin-based airline said it was selling 100,000 seats for €16.99 and encouraged people to buy them “before Musk gets one.”
Their feud took off last week after the billionaire called O’Leary an “utter idiot” for brushing off the suggestion, as well as an offer to purchase the budget airline.
Musk suggested he might “put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge,” and ran a poll on X to test the idea, in which three-quarters of respondents supported it.
O’Leary made light of Musk’s prodding, telling reporters at a Dublin press conference on Wednesday, “If he wants to call me an idiot, he wouldn’t be the first, and he certainly won’t be the last … But if it helps to boost Ryanair sales, you could insult me all day, every day,” the BBC reported.
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He went on to call social media “a cesspit,” but conceded it was important for Ryanair’s marketing.
O’Leary said installing Wi-Fi on his planes through Musk’s internet service would cost an estimated $250 million a year, including additional fuel costs, but that he would welcome an investment.
“Ryanair would be open to investment from the world’s richest person, but a takeover is impossible under European Union rules restricting foreign airline ownership,” he said.
Ryanair is also a publicly-owned company, but Musk “is free to buy shares anytime,” O’Leary mused.
EU-based airlines must also be majority-owned by EU citizens, Swiss citizens, Norwegian citizens, Icelandic citizens or Liechtenstein citizens, as ruled by the European Parliament.
FILE – Elon Musk attends the Saudi Investment Forum at the Kennedy Center, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, in Washington.
Photo/Evan Vucci, File
“If he wants to invest in Ryanair, we would think it’s a very good investment,” O’Leary said, adding the returns would be better than those from Musk’s social media platform X. “Mr. Musk is welcome to buy shares, but he can’t take control,” he added.
O’Leary also confirmed that their public spat, which he called Musk’s “Twitter tantrum,” had led to a surge in seat bookings.
“They’re up about two per cent or three per cent in the last five days, which, given our volumes, is a very significant boost,” he said. He later told a reporter that bookings for January to March, the final quarter of Ryanair’s financial year, were strong.
O’Leary said he had been in talks with Starlink for a year while considering onboard Wi-Fi, but decided it was too costly an investment.
He said Ryanair sought a provider willing to fund installation, and that the two sides sharply disagreed on how much passengers would use the service.
“The Starlink people believe that nine per cent of our passengers would happily pay for Wi-Fi access. Our experience, sadly, tells us we think less than 10 per cent of our passengers would pay for this access,” he said, adding that Musk knows “zero” about flying.
— With files from Reuters
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