RYANAIR boss Michael O'Leary has thanked Elon Musk after the tech entrepreneur called him a 't***', with the Irishman claiming it has boosted the airline's sales.
Musk, who owns the social media site X (formerly Twitter), has recently taken aim at O'Leary after he opted not to use Musk's Starlink internet service to provide Wi-Fi on Ryanair flights.
O'Leary said costs to install Starlink were prohibitive and only 10 per cent of passengers would pay for Wi-Fi on short-haul flights, not the 90 per cent figure presented to him by Starlink.
He also questioned Musk's knowledge of aerodynamics, saying drag from the antenna fitted to the airplanes to provide Wi-Fi would add €100-200m to the airline's annual fuel bill.
Musk has since responded on his X platform, branding O'Leary a 't***' who should be fired and put out to pasture.
However, the insults were water off a duck's back for O'Leary, who has long been a Marmite figure that appears to revel in his pantomime villain role.
At a press conference in Dublin today, O'Leary defended his reasons for not taking up the chance to install Musk's Wi-Fi service.
"I thought that was a reasonably measured response to why we're not using Starlink," said O'Leary.
"Elon Musk apparently took great umbrage and resorted to insulting me on X at the weekend, calling me an idiot.
"I think yesterday he also rounded on me and called me a r******* t***.
"All I would say to Elon Musk is he would have to join the back of a very, very, very, very long queue of people who already think I'm a r******* t***, including my four teenage children."
'Wonderful boost in publicity'
O'Leary went on to thank Musk, saying the attention the spat has drawn to the airline has driven traffic to the Ryanair website and boosted sales.
The Irishman even launched a promotion inspired by the row, with Ryanair's 'Big "Idiot" Seat Sale' offering discounted flights 'for Elon Musk and any other "idiots" on X'.
"We do want to thank him," said O'Leary today.
"We've had over 3m or 4m hits on this seat sale our IT team launched yesterday, which is the Big 'Idiot' Seat Sale.
"There's 100,000 seats available for sale at just €16.99, which just goes to show that Europe leads the world in low airfares — there's no airfares like this in North America.
"Later on this morning we're going around to the X offices in Cumberland House to give Elon Musk a free ticket — he doesn't even have to pay the €16.99 — a free Ryanair ticket to thank him for the wonderful boost in publicity which has seen our bookings rise significantly.
"They're up about 2 or 3 per cent in the last five days, which, given our volumes, is a very significant boost. So, thank you to Mr Musk.
"I take no insult at all at being called an idiot or a t***.
"As anybody with teenage children would know, you're frequently called an idiot at home — I don't need to go outside to be insulted."
Quizzed on Musk's online posts that he might buy the airline, O'Leary welcomed any investment from the X owner while aiming a barb at his rival's social media platform.
"We noticed he was holding a poll about whether he should launch a bid for Ryanair," said O'Leary.
"We're a publicly-owned company, he's free to do so at any time but non-European citizens cannot own a majority of European airlines.
"But if he wants to invest in Ryanair, we would think it's a very good investment — certainly a significantly better investment than the financial returns he's earning on X."
See More: Elon Musk, Michael O'Leary, Ryanair
