Elon Musk suggests he could buy Ryanair amid spat with boss Michael O’Leary

Elon Musk has floated the idea of buying Ryanair as the tech billionaire’s spat with the boss of the budget airline escalates.

The Tesla founder created a poll on the social media platform X, which he owns, asking his followers if he should buy Ryanair and “restore Ryan as their rightful ruler”.

It comes days after he previously made the suggestion amid a feud with the Irish airline over the use of WiFi on flights.

Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary said in an interview with Irish radio station Newstalk that he would “pay no attention whatsoever” to Mr Musk, labelling him an “idiot” after being asked about Starlink being introduced on planes.

Starlink is a satellite internet system developed by Mr Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX.

Mr O’Leary said it would be too costly as the aerial antenna would drag on the aircraft and “passengers wouldn’t pay for internet usage”.

Mr Musk has since fired back at posts on Ryanair’s X account which mocked the tech mogul over the row.

While his own posts are widely taken to be provocative rather than serious bids, Mr Musk’s takeover of X, formerly Twitter, began with a surprise offer to buy it after he built up a stake. 

Ryanair is listed on the Euronext index in Dublin and its shares have a market capitalisation of around 30.4 billion euro (£26.5 billion).

The airline said its chief executive would address Mr Musk’s “Twitter tantrum” at a press conference in Dublin on Wednesday morning.

Mr O’Leary said: “Musk knows even less about airline ownership rules than he does about aircraft aerodynamics.”

The low-cost airline also announced a 100,000-seat sale for “Elon and any other idiots on X”.

Ryanair is expecting to fly 207 million passengers over the current financial year.