‘Insult me all day’: When fighting with Elon Musk is good for business

Ryanair found a cheaper form of fuel than jet kerosene: a public fight. Over the past week, the airline’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, turned a dispute about onboard Wi-Fi into an online scrap with Elon Musk — then did what Ryanair does when the spotlight shows up: He sold seats.

Speaking Wednesday in Dublin, O’Leary said bookings rose 2% to 3% after the blowup and sounded downright pleased to keep the machine running. He’s “very happy to continue the controversy,” he said, and he even offered his dignity up as a renewable resource: “If it helps to boost Ryanair sales, you can insult me all day, any day.”

The volley started Jan. 14, after O’Leary said Ryanair wouldn’t install SpaceX’s Starlink service across its fleet because a roof-mounted antenna would add weight and drag, pushing up fuel costs. O’Leary put the bill at “at least $150 million a year.” Musk replied by calling him “misinformed.” O’Leary fired back by calling Musk an “idiot.” Musk took that personally (as he does), replying with the sort of “I’m smarter than everyone else” energy that pairs well with insomnia — calling for O’Leary to be fired and labeling him an “insufferable accountant,” then posting a poll about buying the airline and putting “someone whose actual name is Ryan” in charge.

The internet, naturally, clocked in.

Ryanair then treated the whole thing like a marketing asset with wings and effectively put the feud on the departures board. O’Leary said a previously scheduled press conference had become a chance to “address/undress Elon Musk Twitter $TWTR tantrum.” The airline launched a “Big ‘Idiot’ Seat Sale,” offering 100,000 seats starting at about $20. O’Leary thanked Musk, too: “Thank you to Mr. Musk,” he said. “Any of these spats are great for bookings.”

And no, Musk can’t simply buy the airline for fun. O’Leary pointed to EU rules requiring European airlines to be majority owned and controlled by EU nationals, though he encouraged Musk to invest anyway.

This feud is low-cost carrier logic in its purest form. If a billionaire is handing you free distribution — and your brand is already built on being blunt, unbothered, and cheap — you funnel the attention into fare searches before everyone scrolls away. For a premium airline, a CEO trading insults with a celebrity CEO risks making the product feel cheap. But Ryanair is already proudly cheap. A public scrap fits the personality, and the airline can convert the moment into a sale without asking customers to believe anything more profound than “tickets are on discount.”

Ryanair’s shares rose as much as 2.3% in Dublin trading, a tidy little vote of confidence in weaponized banter.

And on the same day as the Musk theater, O’Leary was also out talking about fundamentals — projecting traffic growth to about 215 million passengers from 207 million over the next 12 months, saying the company expects its first Boeing $BA 737 Max 10 deliveries in January 2027,  and suggesting fares could rise 2% to 4%. If you’re going to do performance art, doing it while you’re telling the market “we’re growing and pricing is firming” isn’t the worst idea.

And under the insults, O’Leary also tucked in other business updates. Ryanair has discussed Wi-Fi with multiple providers, including Starlink, Amazon $AMZN, and Vodafone, but he said there still isn’t an “efficient business model” for in-flight connectivity that passengers will pay for on short-haul routes. Ryanair wants to wait until it can offer broadband for free: “We live in a hyperconnected world, and people will ultimately have free access to Wi-Fi onboard short-haul aircraft,” O’Leary said.

In the meantime, the airline’s cheapest connection is still the same: a well-timed fight and a fare that actually gets booked.