Elon Musk, the multibillionaire owner of X and main shareholder of SpaceX and Tesla, has floated the idea of buying Ryanair Holdings amid a spat with the LCC's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, over the installation of Starlink Wi-Fi and its financial consequences.

After Lufthansa Group announced a plan to equip its entire fleet with Starlink, which is owned and operated by SpaceX, O'Leary dismissed such plans. He told Reuters that Starlink antennas would incur a 2% fuel penalty due to additional weight and drag. In a subsequent interview with Irish broadcaster Newstalk FM, he added this would increase the airline's costs by USD200-250 million per year.

"The reality for us is we can't afford those costs. Passengers won't pay for internet usage, so it's not coming on board," O'Leary explained.

This stance prompted an outburst of X posts from Musk, who initially asked if he "should buy Ryan Air [sic] and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?". This was followed by a string of messages, including one on January 20 in which he called O'Leary an "insufferable, special needs chimp currently running Ryan Air" who "is an accountant. Has no idea how airplanes even fly."

"What Elon Musk knows about flights and drag would be zero. I would pay no attention whatsoever to Elon Musk. He's an idiot. Very wealthy, but he's still an idiot," O'Leary said on Newstalk, after Musk's initial reaction.

He later added that he would welcome Musk's investment in Ryanair. "I think it'll be a very good investment for him," he said, underlined that the PR spat drove significant website traffic and sales for the LCC.

Ryanair Holdings is currently stock market listed at Euronext Dublin, while its American Depositary Shares trade at NASDAQ. As an EU-certified airline, it is subject to the bloc's control and ownership rules, which restrict third-country ownership to 49%, so Musk, as a Canadian-US American-South African citizen, would not be able to directly acquire a majority stake.

As of January 21, Ryanair Holdings' market capitalisation exceeds EUR30 billion euros (USD35 billion).