Tech mogul Elon Musk escalated his feud with Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary over in-flight internet by calling him an ‘utter idiot’ who should be fired, and later asked social media users whether he should buy
the airline.
The latest war of words came hours after X suffered an outage. Ryanair mocked the outage in a post saying, “Perhaps you need Wi-Fi, @elonmusk?”, prompting a sharp response from the billionaire.
“Should I buy Ryan Air and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?” Musk wrote, a comment that quickly went viral. Social media users reacted with humour, with some encouraging the idea and others joking about the financial risks of buying an airline.
Should I buy Ryan Air and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2026
“Do it,” advised one user, while another joked, “Be careful when you buy them. They’ll offer you a low price that will seem too good to be true, and later down the line they’ll charge you for all kinds of extras.”
A third commented, “Best way to become a millionaire is to be a billionaire and buy an airline.”
What’s The Feud?
The alleged feud between Musk and Ryanair started on Wednesday after O’Leary ruled out installing SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service on Ryanair’s fleet of more than 600 aircraft. Speaking to Irish radio station Newstalk, O’Leary said the antenna required for Starlink would create additional drag, leading to higher fuel costs. He estimated the service could cost the airline between $200 million and $250 million annually.
“You need to put an antenna on the fuselage; it comes with a fuel penalty because of the weight and drag,” O’Leary said, adding that Ryanair passengers were unlikely to pay for Wi-Fi on short-haul flights.
Musk rejected the claims, saying O’Leary was “misinformed” and that Ryanair did not know how to measure the fuel impact of Starlink equipment. “Ryanair CEO is an utter idiot. Fire him,” Musk posted on X. When a user suggested Musk should buy the airline and remove O’Leary himself, Musk replied: “Good idea.”
Ryanair CEO is an utter idiot. Fire him.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2026
O’Leary later hit back, saying Musk knew “zero” about aviation and drag, calling the tech billionaire an “idiot” and describing X as a “cesspit.”
Airlines have become an important customer base for Starlink, which is being rolled out by more than two dozen carriers, including United Airlines, Qatar Airways and Lufthansa, as demand for in-flight connectivity grows, news agency Reuters reported.
Musk argued that connectivity was becoming an expectation rather than a luxury during air travel and that Ryanair will lose customers to airlines that have internet.
