Michael O’Leary, the CEO of Ryanair Group, has embraced the spotlight surrounding his public dispute with Elon Musk, the richest person in the world.
All publicity is good publicity, as the adage goes. The CEO of Ryanair appears to be taking that personally in his quickly intensifying conflict with Elon Musk of Tesla.
CEO Michael O’Leary stated, “We love these [public-relations] spats that drive bookings on Ryanair,” during a press conference on Wednesday morning that was initially scheduled to address passenger restrictions at Dublin Airport. It most likely “does wonders” for Musk’s engagement on X, he continued.
The conflict started last week when the low-cost airline (RYAAY) announced that it will not be joining the increasing number of carriers that are using SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet to offer in-flight access. Executives from SpaceX responded by openly denouncing Ryanair, with Musk referring to O’Leary as a “idiot” and implying that he should purchase the airline himself.
See more: The CEO of Ryanair and Elon Musk refer to one another as “idiots” The figures convey a different message.
According to O’Leary, Ryanair, which has frequently welcomed internet controversy, leveraged the disagreement to start a “idiot” sale that resulted in up to 4 million visitors on the company’s website. O’Leary described the recent 2%–3% increase in reservations at the Irish airline as “significant” because of Ryanair’s volume.
The first airline in Europe to transport 200 million passengers in a single fiscal year was Ryanair in 2025. According to the company’s website, it operates more than 3,600 flights every day and covers 36 countries.
O’Leary stated on Wednesday that Ryanair has been considering the use of Starlink to offer in-flight wifi to passengers for over a year, describing the system as “terrific.” However, O’Leary estimated that the cost of the service alone, as well as the additional fuel used owing to the weight of the antennas, would cost the airline between $200 million and $250 million annually.
“The only way we can see Starlink working on board our aircraft on short-term flights is if we give it away for free,” O’Leary stated. “If Ryanair charged a small fee, only about 5 percent of passengers would probably use the service,” he continued.
Ryanair has also held talks with British telecom company Vodafone (UK:VOD) and Amazon (AMZN), which is creating a competing service to Starlink. But Ryanair hasn’t enabled wifi connections because of the “fundamental issue” of cost.
Some view the various levels of free in-flight wifi provided by airlines as a means of competing with rivals. While Delta Air Lines (DAL) offers wifi as a perk of its loyalty program, JetBlue Airways (JBLU) gives it away for free to all of its passengers.
Earlier this month, American Airlines (AAL) announced that it would work with ViaSat (VSAT), Intelsat, and AT&T (T) to offer free high-speed wifi to members of its loyalty programs. Additionally, it apparently talked about collaborating with Amazon’s Leo, which angered SpaceX executives.
“American Airlines will lose a lot of customers if their connectivity solution fails,” Musk stated in December. In 2025, Starlink will have serviced over 21 million passengers and is collaborating with over two dozen airlines to offer high-speed internet.
