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Ryanair boss could land near-£2bn payout after Elon Musk feud

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Michael O’Leary has been chief executive of Ryanair for more than 30 years

The boss of Ryanair could land a cash payout of as much as £1.7bn if the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, acts on his threats to buy the airline.

Michael O’Leary, who has been chief executive of the County Dublin-based business for more than 30 years, has accumulated the sixth-largest stake in the company, with more than 40m shares worth a combined £1bn, corporate filings show.

The outspoken Irish businessman is also on course to secure another 10m worth of shares by meeting the performance conditions of a long-term bonus award, which would hand him another £150m based on today’s share price and the option price for the share award.

Musk, who has a net worth of more than £500bn, has a history of making threats to buy businesses and following through on them. His best-known acquisition was the hostile takeover of social media site Twitter, which he bought in 2022 at a 38 per cent premium to the firm’s share price prior to the offer.

Should Musk make an offer for Ryanair at the same share premium, that would force O’Leary to sell his stake, netting the executive an eye-watering £1.7bn.

However, Elon’s vision to buy the Irish airline might not be as simple as his acquisition of Twitter. 

​Because Ryanair is headquartered in Dublin, the airline falls under strict European Union (EU) regulations. Under EU law, airlines must obtain operating licences from a member state authority and be majority-owned (50 per cent) and controlled by EU nationals. 

​Although Elon holds several citizenships—South African, Canadian, and US—none are from any of the 27 EU countries. As a result, he cannot own a controlling stake in an EU-based airline without jeopardising its operating licence. 

Musk could build up a minority stake in the company, but would have to partner with a group of EU-based investors to form a consortium to stand any chance of taking the airline private.

Elon Musk spat 

The eccentric row between the two billionaires kicked off over the weekend on the subject of in-flight wifi, after the official Ryanair platform quoted a Musk post which asked: “What is a propaganda you’re not falling for ??” 

Ryanair jokingly responded with: “Wi-Fi on planes”. 

Michael O’Leary has argued that it would not be worth the cost and weight that would be added to enable on-flight internet on Ryanair flights, particularly for short-haul journeys. 

And in the days since, Musk and O’Leary have each called the other an “idiot”, whilst the Tesla chief has escalated to particularly lurid language in the days since. 

The Ryanair boss has since called for “Europe to stand up to the US”, amidst growing tensions over Donald Trump’s threats to acquire Greenland and multilateral threats of tariffs. 

He said: “I don’t think a trade war would last very long, given the amount of American businesses that are based here in Europe, and given the amount of Europe imports from America and vice versa. 

“But we have to have a more belligerent foreign policy towards certainly the Trump administration, and we would hope that eventually common sense will prevail.”