(Photo by Brian Lawless/PA Images via Getty Images)
Ryanair says its feud with Elon Musk over Starlink has led to a sales increase for the Irish airline. Bookings are "up about 2 or 3% in the last five days,” says CEO Michael O’Leary.
In a press conference earlier today, O'Leary addressed his ongoing spat with Musk, who has threatened to acquire the airline and fire its CEO. In response, Ryanair on Tuesday launched an "idiot" seat ticket sale meant to troll Musk, after O’Leary called the SpaceX CEO an “idiot.”
“We do want to thank [Musk]," O'Leary said during the presser. "We’ve had, I think, 3 or 4 million hits on this seat sale that our IT team launched yesterday.” He dismissed Musk’s takeover threat, pointing to a European Union regulation that bars non-EU citizens from acquiring a majority ownership of the airline.
“But if he wants to invest in Ryanair, we would think it’s a very good investment,” O’Leary said. “Certainly a significantly better investment than the financial returns he’s earning at X,” which Musk bought in 2022 for $44 billion.
The feud started last week when O'Leary told Reuters that his airline wouldn’t adopt Starlink for in-flight Wi-Fi, despite its growing use across the industry. According to Ryanair, the satellite internet system is too costly for the ultra-low carrier, which would need to charge for the Starlink access to recoup the costs.
In the press conference, Ryanair’s CEO revealed that the airline was in talks with SpaceX about using Starlink for in-flight Wi-Fi for “over 12 months now.” Surprisingly, O’Leary heaped praise on Starlink, saying, “it is a very good system. We like the Starlink system. It is a terrific system. It works very well.” Tests have shown the satellite internet system can offer in-flight Wi-Fi speeds that beat the competition.
But even with the faster Wi-Fi, O’Leary remained firm: Ryanair won't be adopting Starlink, at least under the current financial terms. He estimates the Starlink access would cost the airline $200 million to $250 million per year, which includes the extra fuel costs caused by the drag of the dual Starlink antennas on every jet.
“The Starlink people believe that 90% of our passengers would happily pay for Wi-Fi access. Our experience sadly tells us we think less than 10% of our passengers would pay for this access,” O’Leary added.
Musk and SpaceX initially pushed back on Ryanair's fuel cost claims without slinging insults. But the fight escalated after O’Leary said in a radio interview that Musk is "very wealthy, but still an idiot." On X, Musk has fired back, including calling O’Leary a “retarded twat.”
Today, O’Leary shrugged off the insult. “He would have to join a very long queue of people who already think that I’m a retarded twat, including my four teenage children," he said. "But he’s wrong about the fuel drag.”
Still, Ryanair's CEO left the door open to one day adopting Starlink. "Those discussions will continue," he said. O'Leary also noted his airline has been in talks with Amazon's rival satellite internet service, Leo, about in-flight connectivity as well.