In January 2026, the online fight between Elon Musk and Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary kept getting bigger and finally hit a peak. It all started when O’Leary openly rejected the idea of adding Musk’s Starlink satellite internet to Ryanair flights, saying the system wasn’t efficient enough. Musk, who rarely backs away from a fight, replied by questioning O’Leary’s abilities and even joked about taking over the airline.
A recent outage on X (formerly Twitter) added fuel to the fire. Users in the US complained they couldn’t post, load their feeds or access content. Downdetector showed a big spike in complaints and the issue was reported by several outlets, including the New York Post.
Ryanair’s social media team, famous for its sarcastic style, used the moment to tease Musk over the platform’s problems – something that likely triggered Musk’s sharper reactions.
Reacting to the chaos on X, the airline posted, “Perhaps you need Wi-Fi, @elonmusk?”
perhaps you need Wi-Fi @elonmusk? https://t.co/eq82qcLqKv
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) January 16, 2026
Musk’s reaction sparks hilarious responses
Musk shot back with, “Should I buy Ryanair and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?” His joke went viral instantly, leading to a flood of memes, jokes and wild replies online.
Should I buy Ryan Air and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2026
Under Musk’s post a user wrote sarcastically “@grok who are the top 5 Ryan’s that would be suitable for this job ?”
One more user named Ryan wrote, “Make me CEO and I’ll give all Ryan’s a discount”.
Another user named Ryan said, “I’m ready. But only compensation is in Dogecoin”.
One more comment surfaced, where a user named Bryan wrote, “Ok, hear me out: Buy it, put me in charge, my name is Bryan, and we’ll paint B’s in front of the Ryan. And I’ll use grok to fix everything over there and live tweet all of it on X”.
Why did Ryanair reject Starlink?
This whole fight began when Ryanair refused to use Starlink. O’Leary said adding the satellite antennas would cause a “2% fuel penalty” because of extra weight and drag. He said that on Ryanair’s usual one-hour flights, passengers wouldn’t want to pay for Wi-Fi anyway, so installing the system didn’t make business sense.
Musk immediately pushed back on X, calling O’Leary “misinformed.” He said the extra drag on such short flights is “basically zero” during takeoff and warned that Ryanair could lose customers to airlines offering better internet.
The argument soon got personal. In an interview with Ireland’s Newstalk radio, O’Leary repeated his criticism and said, “I would pay no attention whatsoever to Elon Musk, he’s an idiot. He’s very wealthy, but still an idiot.” He also described Musk’s platform X as a “cesspit.”
Meanwhile, other big airlines like Lufthansa, United and Hawaiian Airlines have already started using Starlink to provide free high-speed Wi-Fi. But O’Leary insists that Ryanair’s ultra-low-cost model doesn’t allow such “luxuries” if they hurt profits.