Musk reignites feud with Ryanair CEO, asks if he should buy the airline

During the process of purchasing Twitter, now known as X, he frequently voiced his disapproval of operations at the company and the decisions made by its CEO at the time

By Leen Al-Rashdan

 

The online brawl between Elon Musk and Ryanair Holdings Plc dragged into a second week, with the world’s richest man again floating the idea of buying the airline after clashing with its chief executive officer. 

Musk posted a poll on X on Monday asking if he should purchase Ryanair and “restore Ryan as their rightful ruler.” Earlier in the day, he responded to a post by the low-cost carrier asking how much it would cost to buy them and demanding again they fire Michael O’Leary, the longtime CEO and public face of the airline. 

The feud between the two outspoken leaders erupted last week after O’Leary said he wouldn’t consider installing SpaceX’s Starlink internet across the budget airline’s fleet because of fuel costs from the weight and drag of the antenna mounted on the roof of the cabin. Musk then called O’Leary misinformed, who in turn branded the billionaire an “idiot.”

 

Ryanair shares rose as much as 2.3 per cent on Tuesday. Ryanair has a market value of about 30 billion euros, three times the size of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the region’s largest airline group. 

 

O’Leary, who has built the company into the biggest budget carrier in the region over several decades, is among the airline’s top 10 shareholders. He was recently awarded a major bonus package for achieving certain performance metrics on the stock, which gained 55 per cent last year.

 

Musk is known to be blunt in his criticism of executives and companies, especially on social media. During the process of purchasing Twitter Inc., now known as X, he frequently voiced his disapproval of operations at the company and the decisions made by its CEO at the time. Musk ended up buying Twitter for $44 billion and laying off its staff, including senior executives.

 

Musk has polled his followers in the past on matters ranging from whether Tesla Inc. should accept Dogecoin as payment for its electric vehicles to if he should sell some of his stake in the carmaker. He followed through with offloading shares in the company toward the end of 2021.

 

The following year, after taking a stake in what was then still Twitter, he polled users on whether they wanted a button to edit their tweets, asked whether the company should convert its San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter, and sought views as to whether Twitter should bring back the short-form video service Vine.

 

Months after taking a poll on whether he should step down as head of the company, Musk hired Linda Yaccarino to replace him as CEO in May 2023.

 

Buying an airline isn’t an easy endeavor. British Airways owner IAG SA abandoned a plan to buy Spanish carrier Air Europa in 2024 over competition concerns and Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc. and Frontier Group Holdings have faced difficulties trying to merge.

 

There are also significant regulatory hurdles to buying airlines, with many countries limiting foreign ownership in major carriers.