Ryanair CEO trolls Elon Musk with “Great Idiots” ticket sale during feud

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary rolled out a “Great Idiots” seat sale on Tuesday (Jan. 20), taking a jab at Elon Musk and his followers after the Starlink chief criticized O’Leary for rejecting a proposal to equip Ryanair’s aircraft with satellite internet.

In a post on X that day, the Dublin-based airline announced 100,000 tickets priced at €16.99 and urged customers to snap them up “before Musk gets one.”

The clash escalated last week when the billionaire labeled O’Leary an “utter idiot” for dismissing both the Starlink idea and a potential bid to buy the low-cost carrier.

Musk suggested he might “put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge,” and ran a poll on X, in which three-quarters of respondents supported it.

O’Leary brushed off the jabs, telling journalists 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,” according to the BBC.

O’Leary said adding Musk’s Wi-Fi service to Ryanair aircraft would cost around $250 million annually, including extra fuel expenses, but said he would still 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.

He added that Ryanair is publicly traded, and Musk “is free to buy shares anytime.”

EU rules require airlines to be majority-owned by EU, Swiss, Norwegian, Icelandic, or Liechtenstein citizens, as set out by the European Parliament.

O’Leary also said the public feud—what he called Musk’s “Twitter tantrum”—had boosted ticket sales.

“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 told media.

He noted that Ryanair had been in talks with Starlink for about a year while evaluating onboard Wi-Fi but ultimately found it too expensive.

O’Leary said the airline wanted a provider willing to cover installation costs and that there was a big disagreement over expected passenger demand.

“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.

Don't miss a single travel story: subscribe to PAX today!  Click here to follow PAX on Facebook.