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Elon Musk fiercely responded to Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary's comments, labelling him an 'utter idiot' and suggesting he should be fired. The exchange escalated into public insults as O'Leary rejected Musk's Starlink proposal.
What began as a fairly harmless exchange between two outspoken corporate leaders quickly turned messy, with the discussions spiralling into name-calling and public insults. In the latest twist to the Starlink row, Elon Musk has escalated the war of words with the billionaire CEO of Europe's biggest airline, Michael O’Leary.
The CEO of Ryanair Holdings on Wednesday ruled out the proposal of installing SpaceX’s Starlink internet across the low-cost airline’s fleet because of fuel costs from the weight and drag of the antenna mounted on the roof of the cabin.
“You need to put antenna on fuselage it comes with a 2% fuel penalty because of the weight and drag,” Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary told Reuters. “We don't think our passengers are willing to pay for WiFi for an average 1-hour flight.”
The Irish executive's remarks drew a swift response from the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, who said on his X platform that O’Leary was “misinformed” and warned that Ryanair would lose passengers to rival airlines that have already signed up for the service.
Ugly brawl between billionaires
While the real question should have been whether budget-conscious passengers even want high-speed internet on short flights across Europe, the focus instead shifted to the high-profile public spat between the two business leaders.
After Ryanair's chief executives decided to opt out of Starlink, the exchange only went downhill from there, with O’Leary telling Irish radio station Newstalk on Thursday that Musk knows “zero” about flights and aircraft drag. He also claimed that Starlink would cost Ryanair as much as $250 million a year to operate.
“I would pay no attention whatsoever to Elon Musk…He’s an idiot, very wealthy, but he’s still an idiot.” O’Leary said during the show.
Musk then hit back sharply on Friday, responding to O’Leary's remarks by calling him an “utter idiot” and saying that he be fired from his job, further escalating the brawl.
A person responded to Musk's tweet saying, “Just buy Ryanair and fire him yourself,” to which Musk replied, “Good idea.”
O'Leary set to receive $116 million bonus for his performance
O’Leary, who is set to receive a $116 million bonus in 2028 for meeting performance targets, still commands a fraction of the wealth of Musk, whose vast fortune spans ventures ranging from space exploration to his role as the chief executive of Tesla Inc, according to Bloomberg data.
Musk's current net worth exceeded $700 billion a while back, surpassing the combined wealth of the next three tech billionaires on the list, including Google's Larry Page, Oracle's Larry Ellison, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos, according to the data. He exceeds Larry Page alone by nearly $500 billion.
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