Elon Musk Ryanair: Tesla CEO suggests he wants to buy budget airline - adding he wants to 'put a Ryan in charge'
Elon Musk questioned on X how much it would cost to buy the beloved budget airline Ryanair.
Musk responded to a witty X post from the airline appearing to oppose adding Wi-Fi on planes, asking Ryanair, “How much would it cost to buy you?” and then adding, “I really want to put a Ryan in charge of Ryan Air. It is your destiny.”
Moments later, he pinned a poll on his X profile asking users whether he should buy the company. The poll had just over 300,000 votes, with 79% of users responding affirmatively.
It comes after O'Leary rejected the idea of installing SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service on Ryanair aircraft, saying Elon Musk knows “zero” about flights and drag. The next day, Musk publicly responded to the clip by calling O'Leary “an utter idiot,” adding, “Fire him.”
That prompted a user to suggest he buy Ryanair and fire O'Leary, sparking Musk’s interest, who responded with “Good idea.” Shortly after X suffered a sitewide outage on Friday, Ryanair’s account, which is known for its witty posts, poked fun at Musk, asking, “Perhaps you need Wi-Fi.” That’s when Musk hit back by suggesting that he might try to buy Ryanair and put a person named Ryan in charge.
Ryanair is the world's largest and most successful ultra-low-cost carrier. The company was founded over 40 years ago in Ireland, and it also operates subsidiaries based in the UK, Malta, and Poland. Michael O'Leary has been the Ryanair Group CEO since 1994, and the carrier has become Europe's largest airline under his leadership.
Currently, traders believe that the chances of Elon Musk buying Ryanair are less than 10%. Musk is known for making controversial and occasionally unsubstantiated statements.