"I know he's an idiot": Ryanair CEO assesses the business benefits of his feud with Musk

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said he has no plans to make peace with the world's richest man, Elon Musk, following a public spat over the installation of Wi-Fi on the airline's planes, according to Bloomberg.

“I have no intention of putting up with him. He thinks I’m an idiot, but I know he’s the idiot,” O’Leary said in an interview with Bloomberg Television following the release of Ryanair’s half-year results.

According to O'Leary's estimate, the conflict brought Ryanair between $30 million and $40 million in free publicity. “If we can manage to upset him again, so much the better,” he concluded.

The dispute began in January, when O'Leary stated that Ryanair would not install Starlink satellite Wi-Fi on its fleet of Boeing aircraft, because the weight and aerodynamic drag of the antenna mounted on the cabin roof would increase fuel costs by $250 million a year.

After that, SpaceX founder Elon Musk called O'Leary a "complete idiot" and posted a poll on X asking whether he should buy Ryanair. The airline’s market capitalization at the time was about $35 billion—22 times less than Musk’s personal fortune.

O'Leary fired back at the billionaire, calling him a “very rich idiot,” and launched a “sale for idiots”—100,000 tickets for €16.99. Later, the airline’s CEO estimated that following his verbal sparring with Musk, Ryanair’s bookings had increased by 2–3%.

The controversy returned to the spotlight last week when rival low-cost carrier EasyJet announced an agreement with SpaceX to install Starlink on its aircraft. Other European carriers have also signed up for the service—for example, IAG, the parent company of British Airways, Deutsche Lufthansa, and Air France-KLM.

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