A dispute between Elon Musk and Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary escalated quickly after the airline boss said he would not install the billionaire's Starlink internet services aboard the fleet of more than 600 aircraft.
The two outspoken company leaders clashed after Mr O'Leary on Wednesday dismissed the idea of equipping the low-cost airline's jets with the Starlink high-speed Wi-Fi service, citing fuel costs of $200 million to $250 million a year, or an extra $1 per passenger flown, from the weight and drag of the aerial antenna that need to be mounted on the fuselage.
He said that passengers would be unwilling to pay for Wi-Fi on short-haul flights.
“What Elon Musk knows about flights and drag would be zero … I frankly wouldn't pay any attention to anything that Elon Musk puts on that cesspit of his called X,” Mr O'Leary told Irish broadcaster NewsTalk. “He's an idiot. Very wealthy but he's still an idiot.”
Mr Musk – the richest person on the planet, with a purported net worth of $681 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index – fired back on his social media platform X, saying Mr O'Leary was “misinformed.”
“I doubt they can even measure the difference in fuel use accurately, especially for a one-hour flight, where the incremental drag is basically zero during the ascent phase,” the billionaire said.
“Compared to most other solutions, there would actually be gains in efficiency.”
The boss of SpaceX and Tesla on Friday responded to Mr O'Leary's criticisms calling him “an utter idiot” and demanding to “fire him.”
In response to an X user's comment urging him to buy Ryanair and fire the airline chief himself, Mr Musk replied: “Good idea.”
In a separate post on X Mr Musk mused: “Should I buy Ryan Air and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?”
Titans of industry
The war of words spiralled between the two corporate leaders whose colourful comments and strong opinions often make global headlines and who are both leaders of their respective industries.
Mr O'Leary has run Ryanair for more than 30 years and is a towering figure in the world of aviation, transforming the airline into Europe’s biggest budget airline and democratising regional air travel.
Mr Musk's Tesla and SpaceX ventures and forays into US politics with controversial opinions have made the tech billionaire a household name.
Airlines have become increasingly important customers of Starlink, a network powered by thousands of low-Earth orbit satellites that aims to provide faster and more reliable in-flight Wi-Fi.
Dozens of airlines – including Emirates, flydubai, Qatar Airways, United Airlines and Lufthansa – are rolling out the ultra-fast Wi-Fi service on-board their fleets.
Starlink is already available in parts of the Middle East, including Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and Jordan. It is also set for Lebanon after the government granted a licence to the satellite network in September.
