The trigger was Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet service operated by SpaceX.
Musk has aggressively pushed Starlink as the future of aviation connectivity, promising high-speed, low-latency internet even at cruising altitude. Several long-haul and premium airlines have bought into that vision. Ryanair, however, has not.
What’s the issue at hand?
O’Leary publicly dismissed Starlink as too expensive and aerodynamically inefficient for short-haul budget flights.
He argued that adding Starlink antennas would increase aircraft drag and fuel consumption across the airline’s large short-haul fleet, claiming the equipment would impose a 2% fuel burn penalty costing the carrier roughly $250 million annually.
Musk fired back
In response, Musk accused the Ryanair CEO of getting the math wrong by a factor of 10. He cited real-world performance data from the Boeing 737 and referenced a Starlink executive’s estimate that the drag penalty would be closer to 0.3%.
Musk jokes about buying Ryanair
The clash escalated when O’Leary called Musk an “idiot” who knows “zero” about aviation in an interview on the radio show Newstalk. Further, Ryanair’s official account trolled Musk during a widespread outage on X on two consecutive days last week.
Musk fired back on his social media platform X, calling O’Leary an “utter idiot” and an “imbecile.” He polled his users on the idea of buying the airline and wrote on X, “Should I buy Ryanair and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?” (sic).
Ryanair CEO dismissed the idea
Speaking to reporters in Dublin, Ryanair’s headquarters, O’Leary pointed out that European aviation rules prevent non-European citizens from holding a controlling stake in EU airlines.
Musk, who was born in South Africa and is now based in the United States, would therefore be barred from taking control. However, O’Leary added that Ryanair would welcome Musk as an investor, quipping that it would likely deliver far better returns than Musk’s current investment in X.
In consecutive posts, O’Leary dryly thanked Musk for the “additional publicity.”
Ryanair has leaned into the dispute, rolling out a seat sale promoted with a caricature of the Tesla and SpaceX chief.
Asked about Musk’s jabs, O’Leary brushed them off, saying the billionaire would merely be joining “a very, very, very, very long queue” of people who have insulted him.
Getting the facts right
O’Leary said Ryanair had held talks with Starlink for roughly a year about fitting the satellite system to its fleet.
While he praised the technology as “a terrific system” that “works very well,” he said the economics did not stack up.
Installing two antennas on each aircraft would add costs, including an estimated 2% increase in aerodynamic drag that would add roughly $200 million to its fuel bill.
As a result, Ryanair would need to charge passengers for the service. O’Leary said fewer than 5% of customers would likely pay the extra few euros for Wi-Fi on the airline’s short-haul routes, where the average flight time is around one hour and 15 minutes.
