{"id":288996,"date":"2026-01-17T09:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T09:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/288996\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T09:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T09:35:10","slug":"musk-and-ryanair-boss-swap-insults-over-airline-refusing-starlink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/288996\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk and Ryanair boss swap insults over airline refusing Starlink"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael O\u2019Leary and Elon Musk, possibly the world\u2019s two most outspoken businessmen, have traded insults over Ryanair\u2019s refusal to install Starlink internet access on its aircraft.<\/p>\n

The row on the radiowaves \u2014 often the preferred communication channel of Ryanair\u2019s billionaire group chief executive O\u2019Leary \u2014 and on X, the social media platform of Starlink\u2019s near-trillionaire owner Musk, descended into an exchange in which O\u2019Leary called Musk \u201can idiot\u201d and Musk called O\u2019Leary \u201can utter idiot\u201d.<\/p>\n

The war of words widened to O\u2019Leary telling listeners to the Irish radio station Newstalk \u201cnot to pay any attention whatsoever to anything that Musk puts on that cesspit X\u201d. Musk countered on X, formerly known as Twitter: \u201cFire him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ryanair scraps Prime membership after racking up \u20ac1.6m in losses<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The argument had started when it emerged that Ryanair, unlike the likes of British Airways <\/a>and Lufthansa, would not be installing Starlink internet technology on its 650 aircraft, the largest airline fleet in Europe. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary had reasoned that the antennae and related hardware needed would cause weight and drag on flights and cost the airline between $200 million and $250 million in operating costs and extra fuel \u2014 the equivalent of about $1 for every passenger it carries.<\/p>\n

That, said O\u2019Leary, would necessitate charging for the service. He said Ryanair passengers would only be prepared to use the service if it were free. If the carrier couldn\u2019t charge passengers \u20ac1 a time to use it, he said Ryanair would not be able to afford the extra cost.<\/p>\n

Having apparently not found a customer in Ryanair for his Starlink satellite communications services, which allow in-flight connectivity and fast streaming, Musk said O\u2019Leary was \u201cmisinformed\u201d and that his airline would lose passengers to other carriers. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Linda Daly: Is Ryanair unstoppable?<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary countered that Musk\u2019s knowledge of running an airline amounted to \u201czero\u201d.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary, one of the richest men in Ireland, has long been one of the most outspoken business leaders, which he has admitted is a device to stir up free publicity. <\/p>\n

Musk, the richest man in the world, has come to the verbal and social media insults game a little later and his proximity to the administration of President Trump has led to a popularity deficit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael O\u2019Leary and Elon Musk, possibly the world\u2019s two most outspoken businessmen, have traded insults over Ryanair\u2019s refusal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-288996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115909763054873600","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}