Elon Musk posted a poll on his social platform X asking if he should buy Ryanair, raising the idea for a second time after a dispute with the budget airline's chief executive Michael O'Leary stretched into a second week.
The world's richest man asked on Monday if he should "buy Ryan Air and restore Ryan as their rightful ruler".
Replying to a separate post by Ryanair on its X account, Mr Musk asked: "How much would it cost to buy you?"
Ryanair's share prices rose as much as 2.3 per cent during market trading on Tuesday. The airline has a market capitalisation of about €35 billion ($41 billion).
The no-frills airline was founded by Irish entrepreneur Tony Ryan 40 years ago. Mr O'Leary was appointed chief executive of Ryanair in 1994 and group chief executive in April 2019, having previously served as chief financial officer since 1988. Mr O'Leary transformed the company from a small Irish regional airline to Europe's largest by passenger numbers and democratised regional air travel.
The row between the two outspoken corporate leaders started last week, when Mr O'Leary said he would not consider installing the billionaire's Starlink internet services on Ryanair's fleet of more than 600 planes. He cited additional fuel costs of $200 million to $250 million a year, or an extra $1 per passenger, from the weight and drag of the external antenna that would need to be mounted on the fuselage.
The resulting dispute then descended into name-calling territory when Mr Musk said Mr O’Leary was "misinformed", and the Ryanair boss in turn called the billionaire an “idiot”.
Mr Musk's question about the cost of buying Ryanair draws parallels to his tweet in 2017 inquiring about how much it would cost to buy Twitter. Four years later, the billionaire undertook a tumultuous takeover of the company formerly known as Twitter for $44 billion and laying off its staff, including senior executives.
Mr Musk – the richest person on the planet, with a purported net worth of $681 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index – renamed it X and added it to his business empire, which includes SpaceX and xAI.
The Tesla chief executive also ended his stint as a special adviser to US President Donald Trump. During his time at the White House, Mr Musk was a major influence but once he left he engaged in a public row with Mr Trump over policy.
However, buying an airline is a complicated undertaking as investors have to navigate fair competition rules and foreign ownership laws.
