Elon Musk and Ryanair: Escalation of conflict, new round of face-to-face

The low-cost airline called the Tesla owner an "idiot" on January 20th and used the unusual argument to promote its January ticket sale.

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Photo: Reuters
Photo: Reuters
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

The public conflict between Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, and the popular Irish airline Ryanair is getting more intense by the day.

So much so that Musk asked followers whether to buy Ryanair, while calling for the removal of its CEO.

The low-cost airline called a Tesla owner an "idiot" on January 20th and used the unusual altercation to promote its January ticket sale.

Musk and Michael O'Leary, the CEO of Ryanair, have been trading insults for a week, after O'Leary dismissed the idea of ​​Musk's Starlink technology being used to provide internet on their flights.

At a press conference on January 21, O'Leary thanked Musk for the additional publicity their online feud had brought to his airline, saying sales had increased by two to three percent in the past five days.

Therefore, O'Leary announced, Ryanair representatives will visit the X's premises in Dublin to present Musk with a free ticket for a flight on the low-cost airline.

In a series of tweets, Musk asked X users whether he should buy the low-cost airline and called O'Leary "insufferable" and an "idiot" after the Ryanair boss rejected the idea of ​​using Musk's Starlink technology to provide wireless internet on flights.

O'Leary told reporters that his four teenage children regularly insult him at home, like many others, and that they therefore do not take offense to Musk's words.

"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 increase Ryanair sales, you could insult me ​​all day every day," O'Leary told the tech company owner and the world's richest man.

He also said that Musk could "freely" invest in Ryanair shares, but under EU law, Musk would not be able to own a majority stake in the European airline.

The two are considered one of the most vocal business leaders in the world.

Musk's fortune is estimated at $769 billion, while O'Leary runs the busiest airline in Europe.

"Maybe Musk needs a break? Ryanair is launching a 'Biggest Idiots' seat sale, especially for Elon and the other idiots on X," Ryanair announced on X.

Ryanair is known for his sharp and humorous posts on social media, in which he often mocks critics or comments on current events.

This announcement came after Musk repeatedly floated the idea of ​​buying Ryanair on X over the past week, suggesting that O'Leary should be fired for refusing to introduce Starlink internet on the company's flights.

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Last week, after German airline Lufthansa announced it would install Starlink on its planes and offer free Wi-Fi to all passengers, O'Leary said Musk "has no clue" about aerodynamics.

In an interview with Irish radio station Newstalk (Newstalk), O'Leary said that passengers would not want to pay even a small fee for Wi-Fi on flights that last about an hour, and that Starlink equipment would increase fuel consumption due to additional air resistance.

"We would have to put an antenna on top of the plane, and that would cost us about $200 to $250 million a year, or about an extra dollar for every passenger we carry."

"We can't afford those costs. Passengers won't pay for the Internet, that's why we're not introducing it," said the Ryanair boss.

O'Leary then called Musk an "idiot", to which Musk responded with the same insult.

Airlines are becoming increasingly important to Starlink, a network that relies on thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit.

This technology is already being introduced by carriers such as Qatar Airways and United Airlines.

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