Elon Musk has said he could buy Ryanair amid an ongoing public spat with the budget airline’s boss Michael O’Leary.
The two have clashed numerous times over the past few days, resulting in Mr Musk asking his X followers if he should buy Ryanair and “restore Ryan as their rightful ruler”.
Ryanair responded by announcing a “big idiot seat sale”, which it says is for the billionaire tech mogul and any other “idiots” on Mr Musk’s social media platform.
Here is everything you need to know about why the two outspoken chief executives are trading insults, from what has been said to why it began in the first place.
What is the row about?
The spat appears to have stemmed from Mr O’Leary ruling out equipping Ryanair jets with Mr Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service, after rivals Lufthansa and Scandinavian airline SAS announced a deal to install Starlink on its aircraft.
In an interview with Irish radio station Newstalk on 16 January, Mr O’Leary said he would not install the technology because he believed that passengers on Ryanair’s short-haul flights would “not be willing to pay” to use it.
He added it would cost the company about €200-250m per-year to use the tech and add 1-2% to their fuel bill due to the two aerials required on each flight, which would impact the aerodynamics of the aircraft.
He told the radio station he would “pay no attention whatsoever” to Mr Musk, labelling him an “idiot”.
“Musk knows even less about airline ownership rules than he does about aircraft aerodynamics,” he said.
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What has happened since?
The Ryanair X account – which is known for its posts which mock criticisms of the airline and weighs in on current events – has since goaded Mr Musk over the issue of wifi.
Unsurprisingly, Mr Musk has not ignored the temptation to reply.
He has labelled Mr O’Leary an “utter idiot”, a “chimp”, called for him to be sacked and said he “has no idea how aeroplanes even fly”.
Ireland correspondent
For an utter idiot, Michael O’Leary is a happy man.
The Ryanair boss lounged cheerfully around the Mayson Hotel in Dublin today, not exactly looking like a CEO at war with the world’s richest man.
It’s clear – in time-honoured Ryanair fashion – he’s welcoming the free publicity generated from his week-long feud with Elon Musk, who regards him as an “utter idiot” and an “insufferable chimp” among other epithets.
“I think I probably agree with that”, O’Leary told me, laughing. “I have four teenage children who regularly call me an utter idiot and an insufferable chimp.”
This is a free swing for the Ryanair boss, who has launched a seat sale off the back of the row – garnering millions of views online already. There’s no real threat – it would seem – of Musk forcing a buyout of his airline.
EU regulations are in place to prevent airline ownership by citizens of countries outside the EU and a few others. The share price has remained stable – investors aren’t panicking.
As for the insults – water off a duck’s back for O’Leary.
Even so, he pulled some punches at his press conference today – there were no fresh barbs for Musk. Rather, an air of bemusement was the order of the day – as Ireland’s most savvy PR operator reaps the rewards of a feud being closely watched by millions.
At a news conference on 21 January, in which he said he would address Mr Musk’s “Twitter tantrum”, Mr O’Leary quipped that he is not insulted by the remarks.
Speaking to Sky News’ Ireland correspondent Stephen Murphy he quipped: “I think I probably agree with him. I have four teenage children who regularly call me an idiot and insufferable chimp.”
Is the ‘big idiot sale’ real?
Using the argument to promote its start-of-the-year sale, Ryanair launched the “great idiots seat sale” which essentially involves 100,000 one-way tickets being sold for £16.99 for flights from January to April.
Both Ryanair’s website and X page have been changed to feature the promotion, which involves what appears to be an AI-generated image of Mr O’Leary and Mr Musk.
Could Musk actually buy Ryanair?
While the social media posts from the world’s richest man have widely been taken as provocative rather than serious, Mr Musk’s takeover of X, formerly Twitter, began with a surprise offer to buy it after he built up a stake.
After asking his 232 million X followers whether he should buy Ryanair and replace Mr O’Leary with someone called Ryan, an overwhelming majority (76.5%) said Mr Musk should do so.
Ryanair is listed on the Euronext index in Dublin and its shares have a market capitalisation of around €30.4bn (£26.5bn).
However, under EU law, EU-based airlines must be majority-owned by people from the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtensten, meaning it wouldn’t be as simple as Mr Musk buying the company outright.
Mr O’Leary did, however, say the company would be open to investment from Mr Musk.
He told Sky News’ Stephen Murphy: “Elon Musk is very welcome to buy shares in Ryanair, I think it would be a very good investment for him but as a non-European he can’t acquire or take ownership of the company.”
