Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary on Wednesday brushed off insults from Elon Musk, saying the online spat with the billionaire had delivered a “wonderful boost” to the airline, with ticket sales rising by two to three percent over the past five days.
“He wouldn’t be the first and certainly won’t be the last to call me an idiot or a retarded twat,” O’Leary said at a press conference in Dublin, adding that he takes “no insult” from Musk’s remarks.
The public exchange began after O’Leary rejected the idea of installing Musk’s Starlink satellite internet on Ryanair aircraft, saying the technology would not be cost-effective for short-haul flights.
“You need to put an antenna on the fuselage. It comes with about a two percent fuel penalty because of the weight
and drag,” O’Leary had said earlier. “We don’t think our passengers are willing to pay for Wi-Fi for an average one-hour flight.”
Musk responded on X by calling O’Leary “misinformed” and later escalated the exchange by calling him “insufferable” and “an idiot”, while floating the idea of buying the Irish airline.
At Wednesday’s press conference, O’Leary said Musk was free to buy Ryanair shares but could not take control of the company due to European Union ownership rules.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said: “He (Elon Musk) wouldn’t be the first and certainly won’t be the last to call me an idiot or a retarded twat.” 😂 pic.twitter.com/lHb2MHBGBy
— Sir Doge of the Coin ⚔️ (@dogeofficialceo) January 21, 2026
“We’re a publicly owned company. He’s free to buy shares at any time,” O’Leary said. “But non-European citizens cannot own a majority of a European airline.”
O’Leary said Ryanair executives would visit X’s Dublin office to give Musk a free Ryanair ticket as a gesture of thanks.
“If it helps to boost Ryanair sales, you could insult me all day, every day,” he said.
The row intensified last week after Lufthansa announced it would install Starlink on its aircraft to offer free Wi-Fi. O’Leary responded by saying Musk knew “zero” about flight aerodynamics.
According to O’Leary, installing Starlink across Ryanair’s fleet would cost around €250 million and increase annual fuel costs by another €100 million. He said Ryanair estimates that only about five to ten percent of passengers would pay for Wi-Fi, resulting in poor returns.
“The Starlink people believe that 90 percent of our passengers would happily pay for Wi-Fi access,” O’Leary said. “Our experience tells us it’s less than 10 percent.”
The exchange also spilled over onto social media. After an X outage last week, Ryanair posted a message asking Musk if he “needed Wi-Fi”. Musk responded by suggesting he should buy the airline and “put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge”.
Musk, whose estimated net worth is $769 billion, has floated the idea of buying Ryanair several times on X. However, EU-based airlines must be majority owned by citizens of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein.
O’Leary said he had no direct contact with Musk and described social media as “a cesspit”, while acknowledging its value for marketing.
Ryanair is Europe’s busiest airline, while Musk is the world’s richest man. Both are known for courting attention through provocative public statements.
