The dispute between Elon Musk, the world's richest man, and Ryanair, Europe's largest budget airline, is intensifying. After Ryanair’s CEO recently clashed with Elon Musk, calling each other an “idiot,” the airline announced on Tuesday that it would launch a special “Big Idiot” special ticket deal just for Elon and other idiots on X.
The promotion includes 100,000 one-way tickets priced at £16.99 each to Basel, Switzerland, Birmingham, UK and Cologne, Germany.
"Buy now before Musk does it!!!" the company wrote in a press release.
The dispute stems from Musk's disagreement with Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary over whether Starlink equipment should be installed on aircraft, with Musk threatening to buy Ryanair and fire O'Leary.
O'Leary said in a recent interview that Ryanair will not install Starlink equipment, although other airlines are actively adopting Starlink satellite Internet services. He believes this will increase fuel costs and most passengers will not buy internet service on short-haul flights. "You need to install antennas on the fuselage, which will increase fuel consumption by 2% because of the increased weight and drag. At the same time, we think passengers are not willing to pay for WiFi on an average flight of one hour."
After seeing the relevant reports, Musk posted on the X platform, "His information is wrong, and I suspect they don't know how to accurately measure the difference in fuel consumption."
Michael Nicolls, Vice President of Starlink Engineering, also posted, "It may be true that the fuel consumption of traditional equipment increases by 2%, but Starlink equipment is smaller and more efficient. Our analysis shows that the fuel consumption of 737-800 aircraft equipped with Starlink equipment only increases by about 0.3%."
In an interview with Irish Radio on January 15, O'Leary said, "Musk knows nothing about flight and drag. We have to install antennas on the top of the aircraft, which will increase the cost of $200 million to $250 million a year. In other words, it costs us about an extra dollar for every passenger we carry, and the reality is that we cannot afford these costs. Passengers will not pay for Internet access; if it is free, they will use it - but they will never spend a euro to access the Internet."
He then hit back at Musk, saying, "Don't pay attention to Musk at all. He is an idiot. Although he is rich, he is still an idiot."
Musk responded, "The CEO of Ryanair is a complete idiot. Fire him!"
A netizen then commented under the post, "Acquire Ryanair and then fire him yourself." To this, Musk replied, "What a great idea!"
Last Friday local time, there were reports that X suffered widespread malfunctions in the United States. Ryanair's X account defiantly asked Musk: "Maybe you need Wi-Fi?" Musk responded: "Should I buy Ryanair and let a guy named Ryan run it?"
Musk also posted over the weekend: "How much would it cost to buy you?" "I really want Ryanair to run Ryanair. This is your destiny."
On Monday local time, Musk launched a "poll" on his social platform X, asking his more than 100 million followers whether he should acquire Ryanair and let someone named Ryan manage Europe's largest low-cost airline.
On Tuesday, local time, Musk made a personal attack on O'Leary when replying to a netizen, saying, "Ryanair is now run by an insufferable, special-needs chimpanzee who is an accountant and has no idea how airplanes fly."
However, it seems unlikely that Musk will successfully acquire Ryanair. Because Ireland is a member of the European Union, and relevant EU laws stipulate that airlines must be majority-owned by EU citizens or shareholders of member states.
The aviation industry is a highly regulated industry. In the United States, the rules are stricter, limiting foreign ownership to 25%.
"Musk knows less about the rules of airline operations than he does about the principles of aircraft aerodynamics," O'Leary wrote in a press release on Tuesday.