Elon Musk flirts with Ryanair acquisition and firing Michael O’Leary
The space-faring entrepreneur Elon Musk is pondering whether to ground his aspirations a little closer to earth, with suggestions on social media that he could acquire Ryanair and eject Michael O’Leary as chief executive.
In a post on X, the Tesla and Space X chief asked his followers in a poll whether he should buy the low cost airline and “restore [someone called] Ryan as their rightful ruler”.
So far, there are more than 37m votes, with more than three quarters of respondents voting “F Yes”.
This follows an eccentric row that 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”.
It’s the latest in an escalating war of words which kicked off when the Ryanair boss dismissed Musk’s suggestions that his own Starlink technology could power wifi connection on the airline’s flights.
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.
Meanwhile, competitors such as British Airways have opted to use the service, which Musk has suggested will cause the Irish budget airline to lose customers.
‘Idiot’ vs ‘idiot’
O’Leary described Musk as a “very wealthy idiot” whose social media platform is a “cesspit” in an interview with the Irish talk radio station Newstalk.
Musk hit back, calling O’Leary an “utter idiot” and directed more lurid insults towards the Irish businessman.
Since then, the world’s richest person has openly pondered: “How much would it cost to buy [Ryanair]?”
An acquisition by Musk would violate EU airline ownership rules, which must be based within a member state or one of four European non-members.
Despite the threats that Ryanair will be left behind technologically, the airline has had a strong year.
In July, the firm reported that quarterly profits had more than doubled, following boosted air fares after a bumper Easter season.