Irish airline Ryanair announces “Great Idiots seat sale” for Elon Musk
A spat between Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary and Elon Musk continued with a bizarre online offer.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has taken aim at Elon Musk, using their very public spat to publicize the company’s January sale offer.
On Tuesday, Ryanair described Musk as an “idiot” after he had called for the removal of O’Leary. In a sharply-worded message on Musk’s own X social media platform, Ryanair wrote: “Perhaps Musk needs a break??”
“Ryanair is launching a Great Idiots seat sale especially for Elon and any other idiots on ‘X’.”
Ryanair does not currently operate any flights into the United States but is one of the most well-known airlines in Europe. In recent years, Ryanair has gained a reputation for lively social media posts.
Why is Ryanair arguing with Elon Musk?
Last week Musk, the world’s richest man, suggested that he was considering trying to buy Ryanair. Musk had taken to his X social media platform to complain about O’Leary’s refusal to use Starlink to provide internet access on Ryanair flights.
Musk claimed that O’Leary should be sacked for rejecting the use of Starlink and said that he wanted to buy the airline. However Ryanair is an Irish company and all airlines in the European Union must be majority owned by people from the EU, or Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein.
O’Leary’s justification for rejecting Musk’s proposal was simple: money. In a conversation with Irish radio station Newstalk, O’Leary said that Musk knew “zero” about the economics nor the mechanics of air travel.
“We [would] have to put an aerial antenna on top of the aircraft. It would cost us about $200-250M a year, in other words about an extra dollar for every passenger we fly.
“We can’t afford those costs. Passengers won’t pay for internet usage... so we’re not putting it on board.”
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