Billionaire businessman Elon Musk appears to have set his sights on Ryanair — posting repeatedly on social media about buying the budget airline. The comments come amid an escalating spat with CEO Michael O’Leary following his absolute refusal to provide Starlink satellite internet on Ryanair flights. Both men have since dismissed each other as “idiots” and remain locked in a war of words.
“Should I buy Ryanair and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?” Musk had joked last week after the airline took a potshot at his company.
The jibes intensified on Monday as many on social media pitched for Musk to take over the company.
“How much would it cost to buy you?” Musk asked in response to a RyanAir post on X.
“I really want to put a Ryan in charge of Ryan Air. It is your destiny.” read a second tweet.
Musk also pinned a poll to his X profile asking users whether he should buy the company and “restore Ryan as their rightful ruler”. The social media post has already garnered 625,703 votes with approximately 16 hours left to go.
Why does Elon Musk want to buy Ryan Air?
The budget airline became the focus of his ire last week after CEO Michael O’Leary dubbed Musk “an idiot” during a podcast. He also dubbed the Starlink services offered by SpaceX ‘unaffordable’ — noting that it costs between $200 million and $250 million per year to install an aerial antenna to access the satellites on top of an aircraft.
“I would pay no attention whatsoever to Elon Musk. He’s an idiot. Very wealthy, but he’s still an idiot…What Elon Musk knows about flights and drag would be about zero,” O’Leary insisted.
Musk had responded sharply to the comments and responded in kind by calling the Ryan Air CEO “an utter idiot”. He also issued calls for O’Leary to be fired and hinted at plans for a takeover of the company. Multiple social media posts and even polls have followed as Musk appeared to double down over the past week. The proposal has found some favour on social media — even as Grok insisted it was “all in good fun” — and even turned into a betting game on Polymarket. Traders on the crypto-based prediction platform now assign a 9% chance of Musk buying Ryanair following an initial surge.
Who owns Ryanair? Hostile takeover on the cards?
Ryanair Holdings plc is a publicly traded company with about 70% of shares held by institutional investors. The remainder is split among individual investors and insiders. According to reports, CEO Michael O’Leary had held a notable stake of up to 4% in 2025 but sold shares worth € 21 million in June last year. Musk would need to stage a hostile takeover or make an acquisition offer to shareholders if he truly wished to gain control of the budget carrier.