The ‘big idiot’ feud between Ryanair’s CEO and Elon Musk

Two powerful men are slinging mud at each other as a row over Ryanair’s Wifi connection escalates, with both calling each other the biggest ‘idiot.’

The Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary and Elon Musk kicked off the new year with a classic billionaire feud, which has intensified in the last few days.

With a combined net worth of around £575 billion – most of its Musk’s – the men have not minced their words after apparently souring business talks, with Musk calling the Ryanair boss an ‘imbecile.’

Here is a breakdown of why the two businessmen are taking jabs at each other – and why they get away with behaviour that would get most people cancelled.

Starlink

The battle of the billionaires started after Ryanair rejected Musk’s Starlink satellite as the budget airline’s potential Wifi provider, saying that the tech installed on planes would require extra fuel and that the fuel drag would cost up to $250 million a year.

Musk said he doubted the company could measure the fuel use ‘accurately.’

O’Leary, who is known for his controversial hot takes, insisted that its passengers won’t pay a penny to use the Internet on board and that it would have to be free.

He then added fuel to the flames by describing X as ‘cesspit.’ He said: ‘I would pay no attention whatsoever to Elon Musk. He’s an idiot – very wealthy, but he’s still an idiot.’

Must hit back by calling the Ryanair boss ‘an utter idiot and insufferable chimp.’

‘Big Idiot’ Ryanair sale

Instead of retreating, Ryanair then channelled the controversy into a PR opportunity – a typical move by the budget airline known for its social media posts relishing criticism rather than hiding away from it.

The airline launched the ‘Big Idiot’ seat sale on Tuesday with 100,000 seats going for £16.99, which O’Leary claimed yesterday has led to a ‘dramatic’ increase in bookings and traffic to its website.

Crisis PR expert Lauren Beeching said that from a communications perspective, the biggest standout moment was the ‘Big Idiot’ sale, which makes it clear ‘this was never viewed as reputational risk internally, but as commercial opportunity.’

She told Metro that the feud aligns ‘perfectly with how both sides already communicate,’ with Ryanair often leaning into humour and provocation and ‘deliberately lowering expectations in a self-aware way.’

But other CEO’s might want to steer clear of their tactic of public name calling.

Lauren continued: ‘Almost any other CEO would struggle to get away with this without raising questions about judgment or leadership.

‘Here, it works because Musk and O’Leary are unusually well-matched. Both have built public personas that thrive on provocation, humour, and being slightly antagonistic.

‘Musk’s online presence is driven by memes and deliberately unserious engagement, while Ryanair has normalised irreverence as a brand voice. Together, it becomes a kind of perfect pairing, entertaining to watch rather than genuinely concerning.’

Could Elon Musk take over Ryanair?

While the row was raging, Musk floated the idea of buying Ryanair over the weekend.

Musk wrote on X: ‘Should I buy Ryan Air and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?’

He then polled his followers asking ‘Buy Ryan Air and restore Ryan as their rightful ruler,’ with over three-quarters of the nearly 900,000 respondents saying yes.

When the airline’s official X account asked Musk that ‘perhaps you need Wifi,’ Musk replied by asking ‘how much would it cost to buy you?’

While the exchanges might seem fun and games, the world’s richest man has previously followed through on threats like this – his takeover of X, formerly known as Twitter in 2017 started with a joking post goading him to buy it.

O’Leary has admitted that he, in fact, likes the Starlink system, but installing it would undermine the airlines’ budget operating model.

He said: ‘If Starlink wants to fit our aircraft and pay for the fuel drag, we’d happily put them on board.’

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