Fighting with Elon Musk has been great for business, Ryanair CEO says

By William Gavin

Ryanair's bookings are up thanks to the controversy - and to a sale themed around the spat, CEO Michael O'Leary says

Ryanair Group CEO Michael O'Leary has welcomed the publicity from his public spat with Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest individual.

As the saying goes, all publicity is good publicity. The head of Ryanair seems to be taking that to heart in his rapidly escalating feud with Tesla's Elon Musk.

"We love these [public-relations] spats that drive bookings on Ryanair," CEO Michael O'Leary said at a press conference Wednesday morning that was originally called to discuss passenger limits at Dublin Airport. He added that it probably also "does wonders" for Musk's engagement on X.

The feud began last week, after the budget airline (RYAAY) said it wouldn't join the growing number of carriers adopting SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet to provide in-flight connectivity. In response, SpaceX executives publicly criticized Ryanair, with Musk calling O'Leary an "idiot" and suggesting he himself should buy the company.

See more: Elon Musk and Ryanair's CEO call each other 'idiots.' The numbers say something else.

Ryanair, which has often embraced online controversy, used the feud to launch an "idiot" sale, which O'Leary said drove as many as 4 million hits on the company's website. Bookings at the Irish airline have risen between 2% and 3% over the past few days, which O'Leary called "significant" due to Ryanair's volume.

In 2025, Ryanair became the first European airline to carry 200 million passengers in a single fiscal year. It serves 36 countries and has more than 3,600 daily flights, according to the company's website.

Ryanair has been discussing using Starlink to provide passengers with in-flight wifi for more than a year, O'Leary said Wednesday, calling the system "terrific." But it would cost the airline between $200 million and $250 million each year, according to O'Leary, due to the price of the service itself as well as to increased fuel consumption because of the extra weight of the antennas.

"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 said. Just 5% of passengers would likely use the service if Ryanair charged a small fee, he added.

Ryanair has also had discussions with Amazon (AMZN), which is developing a rival service to Starlink, and with British telecommunications firm Vodafone (UK:VOD). But the "fundamental issue" of cost has prevented Ryanair from enabling wifi services.

Many airlines offer varying degrees of free in-flight wifi, which some see as a way to compete with rivals. JetBlue Airways (JBLU) provides wifi for free to all customers, while Delta Air Lines (DAL) offers it as part of its loyalty program.

American Airlines (AAL) said earlier this month it would provide free high-speed wifi to loyalty-program members through a partnership with ViaSat (VSAT), Intelsat and AT&T (T). It has also reportedly discussed working with Amazon's Leo, which drew criticism from SpaceX leaders.

"American Airlines will lose a lot of customers if their connectivity solution fails," Musk said last month. Starlink is working with more than two dozen carriers to provide high-speed internet and served more than 21 million passengers in 2025.

-William Gavin

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01-21-26 1219ET