Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary made his opinion of Elon Musk crystal clear in a yesterday interview with Newstalk.
The outspoken airline chief dismissed the billionaire tech mogul and SpaceX founder as someone not worth listening to.
“I would pay no attention whatsoever to Elon Musk. He’s an idiot. Very wealthy, but he’s still an idiot,” O’Leary said.
The comment came amid a public back-and-forth over Ryanair’s decision not to install Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet service, on its planes.
Starlink has been gaining traction among major airlines, including Lufthansa and Scandinavian Airlines, which recently introduced free in-flight internet using the system.
Why Ryanair Said No to Starlink
Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger volume, operates on a famously bare-bones model, with cheap fares, fast turnarounds, and few frills. O’Leary says adding Starlink doesn’t fit that strategy.
“We have to put an aerial antenna on top of the aircraft. It would cost us about $200 [to] $250 million a year. In other words, about an extra dollar for every passenger we fly,” O’Leary said in the interview.
“Passengers won’t pay for internet usage. If it’s free, they’ll use it, but they won’t pay one euro each to use the internet.”
He emphasized that for Ryanair, the added cost and drag on fuel efficiency make Starlink impractical.
“What Elon Musk knows about flights and drag would be zero,” he added.
O’Leary also took aim at the social media platform Musk owns.
“I frankly wouldn’t pay any attention to anything that Elon Musk puts on that cesspit of his called X,” he said. “He was the guy who advocated getting Donald Trump elected.”
Musk Fires Back
Musk didn’t stay quiet. In a post on X, he claimed Ryanair would lose business to competitors offering onboard Wi-Fi.
“They will lose customers to airlines that do have internet,” he wrote.
Starlink’s vice president of engineering, Michael Nicolls, also joined the debate, disputing O’Leary’s claim that the antenna would result in a 2% fuel penalty.
According to Nicolls, SpaceX’s data shows that installing Starlink on a Boeing 737-800, the workhorse of Ryanair’s fleet, increases fuel costs by just 0.3%.
Musk replied to Nicolls, writing, “Hmm, must be a way to get that down under 0.1%.”
Ryanair declined to respond to Musk or Nicolls when contacted by Business Insider.
No-Frills Strategy Still Winning
While U.S. budget carriers have started adding premium features in response to financial pressure, Ryanair is sticking to its ultra-low-cost model.
The airline’s revenue strategy relies on keeping base ticket prices low and charging for extras like seat selection, food, and luggage.
Even without flashy amenities like free Wi-Fi, Ryanair continues to thrive.
In its most recent quarterly earnings report, the airline posted an after-tax profit of 1.72 billion euros (about $2 billion), a 20% increase from the previous year.
For comparison, Southwest Airlines, a U.S. low-cost peer, reported a quarterly profit of just $54 million, down 20% year-over-year.
O’Leary said he doesn’t see any need to change what already works.
“We don’t think our passengers are willing to pay for WiFi for an average one-hour flight,” he told Reuters.
No Interest in Social Media
In the same interview, O’Leary made it clear that he has no intention of engaging with Musk on X or any other platform.
“Do you have an X account, Michael?” the interviewer asked.
“No,” O’Leary replied. “I don’t have any social media accounts. Thankfully, I’m too old to get involved in the cesspit that is social media.”
Despite Musk’s push for wider adoption of Starlink in commercial aviation, Ryanair is betting that its passengers prefer rock-bottom prices over internet access.
And as far as O’Leary is concerned, Musk’s opinion isn’t worth considering.
For now, it seems Ryanair is content flying offline and flying high.