Ryanair CEO Calls Elon Musk ‘Idiot’ to Avoid Charging for Space Internet

KEY POINTS

•Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary dismissed Elon Musk’s Starlink wifi on October 2026, calling him an 'idiot' during an Irish radio interview.
•O'Leary estimated Starlink could cost Ryanair $200 million yearly, about one dollar more per passenger, which he said customers wouldn’t pay.
•Elon Musk and SpaceX engineers responded by highlighting Starlink’s low fuel penalty, challenging O'Leary's higher claimed costs.

On a very Irish Monday, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary, famous for charging passengers to sit next to friends and selling scratchcards mid-flight, dismissed Elon Musk's Starlink as as appealing as paying for WiFi on a 1-hour Ryanair flight. O'Leary, who runs a colossal 643-plane fleet and flew 206 million passengers in 2023, said Starlink would cost $200-$250 million yearly—"about an extra dollar per passenger," which is roughly six times the cost of a Ryanair scratchcard. Musk fired back warning Ryanair would lose customers, only to be labeled an 'idiot' by O'Leary on Irish radio, because exchanging insults is now apparently part of in-flight economy class entertainment. Meanwhile, SpaceX engineers clarified their Starlink antenna adds a mere 0.3% fuel cost on Boeing 737-800s, less than the theoretical 2% penalty O'Leary claimed. This feud eclipses Ryanair’s $2 billion profit last quarter and highlights how Europe's biggest budget airline manages cutting costs by charging passengers for everything except the one thing they fight furiously not to offer: free WiFi.

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Mockingbird News

@MockingbirdNews · now

Ryanair CEO just said Elon Musk is an 'idiot' to keep charging €15 seats without WiFi. Nothing screams 'customer first' like public name-calling to justify ancient, pay-per-air-cheese strategies.

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