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Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has slammed Elon Musk’s latest suggestion that he might buy the airline, fueling a row between the two as they continue to trade insults and insults.
O’Leary, the head of Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, dismissed Musk’s assertion that he might try to buy the company again instead.
“If he wants to invest in Ryanair, we would think it’s a very good investment,” O’Leary said at a press conference in Dublin, according to Reuters. “Mr. Musk is welcome to buy shares, but he has no control.”
O’Leary added that European Union laws prohibit foreign ownership of the airline, and that Musk was born in South Africa and is based in the United States.
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Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has backed down after Elon Musk floated the idea of buying the airline. (Fernando Sanchez/Europa Press via Getty Images/Getty Images)
These comments came after Musk suggested that he would buy the airline and “put a person whose real name is Ryan in charge,” including conducting a poll on X in which about 75% of respondents supported his opinion.
The row between the Irish businessman and one of the world’s richest men has been heated for days, after O’Leary last week said his airline would not add Starlink satellite Wi-Fi to Ryanair flights, Reuters reported.
Musk then accused the CEO of being “misinformed,” to which O’Leary fired back at an Irish radio station, saying, “I don’t care about Elon Musk, he’s an idiot.”
Musk responded to O’Leary in an X post, calling him “stupid” and “silly,” before floating the idea of buying the airline.
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Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc., during the US-Saudi Investment Forum at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
At the news conference – which Ryanair said would be a response to “Musk’s latest Twits –t” – O’Leary dismissed claims that the SpaceX CEO would have to join a long line of people, including his own children, who have already insulted him.
He then thanked Musk for “more publicity.”
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Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary dismissed Elon Musk’s comments about the airline’s takeover. (Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Richard Bord/WireImage/Fox News)
Other airlines, including Qatar Airways, Canada’s WestJet and Hawaiian Airlines, have moved forward with Starlink Wi-Fi, but O’Leary said he believes few Ryanair passengers are willing to pay for the extra service on short-haul flights.
“Starlink people believe that 90% of our passengers will happily pay for WiFi access. Our experience, unfortunately tells us that we think less than 10% of our passengers will pay for this access,” he said.
