Musk asks X users if he should buy Ryanair after CEO calls him ‘an idiot’
The comment comes days after Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary dismissed the speculation of installing Starlink internet device on the airline’s fleet
In yet another war of words on social media platform X, this time with Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, tech mogul Elon Musk sarcastically asked users if he should acquire Ryanair.
"Should I buy Ryan Air and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?" Musk wrote on Friday (January 17), which went viral with over 9.6 million views.
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Wi-Fi dispute
The public feud began when X suffered an outage for the second time in three days and Ryanair took a jibe at the billionaire and posted, “perhaps you need Wi-Fi @elonmusk?”
Musk on Monday (January 19) started a poll on X: "Buy Ryan Air and restore Ryan as their rightful ruler." The poll received over 6,35,000 votes, with 77.5 per cent opting for “F Yes” and 22.5% going for “No”.
This came days after O’Leary, during an interview with Irish radio, dismissed the speculation of installing Starlink internet device on airline’s fleet. O'Leary said the impact of fuel costs from drag caused by the antenna, and estimated the service would cost the airline up to $250 million a year.
“We don't think our passengers are willing to pay for WiFi for an average 1-hour flight," he added.
Also read: Elon Musk 'looking forward' to serving India with Starlink
Responding to Musk’s comment on the potential risk of the airline losing customers over onboard internet services, O’Leary said, “What Elon Musk knows about flight and drag would be zero. I would pay no attention whatsoever to Elon Musk. He’s an idiot. Very wealthy, but he’s still an idiot.”
It later escalated when Musk responded with a post of his own, writing: “Ryanair CEO is an utter idiot. Fire him.”
Public feuds
This is not the first time, Musk has been involved in a public feud on X. From June to September 2025, Musk and US President Donald Trump were engaged in series of posts on the platform criticising each other after the billionaire exited from Trump’s second term government.
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In 2022, soon after he acquired X and naming himself as the CEO, asked a public poll if he should step down as CEO amid continued outrage.