Elon Musk manufacturers Ryanair boss an ‘utter fool’ after he calls X a ‘cesspit’
In the Godzilla vs King Kong of plain-speaking corporate leadership, X’s Elon Musk and Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary are calling each other idiots in a heated spat over inflight internet
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has branded Elon Musk ‘an idiot – very wealthy but he’s still an idiot’(Image: Getty Images)
A dispute over putting Wi-Fi on planes has taken off fast between Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, and Michael O’Leary, the CEO of Ryanair. The low-cost carrier boss, notorious for foul-mouthed comments such as calling his staff “lazy bastards”, didn’t hold back on Musk.
In a recent interview, O’Leary said: “I frankly wouldn’t pay any attention to anything that Elon Musk puts on that cesspit of his called X. He was the guy who advocated getting Donald Trump elected.”
He added that the owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, was “an idiot – very wealthy but he’s still an idiot”. The South African-born entrepreneur hit back with some harsh words of his own.
“Ryanair CEO is an utter idiot,” Musk said. “Fire him.”
In an echo of Musk’s bone-headed intervention in the Thailand cave rescue, where an expert said his ideas had “absolutely no chance of working”, O’Leary dismantled the tech boss’ claim that Starlink could work for an airline like Ryanair.
During the cave rescue, which occurred in 2018 in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave system, located in the Chiang Rai Province of northern Thailand, Musk proposed using a mini-submarine to help save a group of boys who were trapped. However, experts on the ground dismissed his idea as impractical and unworkable.
SpaceX’s satellite-linked system provides internet access in unserved areas including Ukraine. Major airlines such as the Lufthansa Group, British Airways, and Qatar Airways are now rolling it out across their fleets for free or loyalty members.
Nevertheless, Musk’s arguments for putting Starlink on Ryanair flights met a brutal response from the outspoken airline CEO. He said: “I would pay no attention whatsoever to Elon Musk.
“He’s an idiot.” A SpaceX engineer rejected the Ryanair executive’s estimate for the system’s impact on cost.
A “2 per cent fuel impact might be true for legacy terminals, but Starlink’s terminal is much lower profile and more efficient”. Musk weighed in on X by called O’Leary “misinformed” and warned that Ryanair’s customers would switch to airlines offering internet.
Nonetheless, O’Leary shot back again in an interview on Irish radio station Newstalk. Starlink would cost the airline between $200 million and $250 million each year, he said.
The airline CEO further stated: “In other words, about an extra dollar for every passenger we fly, and the reality for us is we can’t afford those costs.
“Passengers won’t pay for internet usage. If it’s free, they’ll use it – but they won’t pay one euro each to use the internet.”
O’Leary’s top 10 shocking comments
- “Germans will crawl bollock-naked over broken glass to get low fares.”
- On passengers who forget to print their boarding passes: “We think they should pay €60 for being so stupid.”
- “One thing we have looked at is maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door, so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in the future. Pay-per-pee. If someone wanted to pay £5 to go to the toilet, I’d carry them myself. I would wipe their bums for a fiver.”
- “Do we carry rich people on our flights? Yes, I flew on one this morning and I’m very rich.”
- To a Ryanair employee who dared to join the Twitter Q&A: “Get back to work you slacker or you’re fired.”
- “You’re not getting a refund so f*** off. We don’t want to hear your sob stories. What part of ‘no refund’ don’t you understand?”
- “Screw the travel agents. Take the f***ers out and shoot them. What have they done for passengers over the years?”
- “We want to annoy the f***ers whenever we can. The best thing you can do with environmentalists is shoot them.”
- “MBA students come out with: ‘My staff is my most important asset.’ Bullshit. Staff is usually your biggest cost. We all employ some lazy bastards who needs a kick up the backside, but no one can bring themselves to admit it.”
- “People either see me as Jesus, Superman or an odious little shit. I think I’m Jesus. A prophet in his own time.”
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