Will he, or won't he? Well, the reality is he can’t.
The newly found ambitions of the world’s richest man to buy Europe’s largest airline outright is unlikely to ever take off.
There have been many unforeseen spats grabbing the headlines since the start of the year, some more serious than others.
But, it's doubtful a war of words between Michael O'Leary and Elon Musk was on anyone's bingo card at the start of 2026.
It all erupted last week over the use of the Wi-Fi enabling Starlink satellite service on Ryanair flights.
Starlink was developed by aerospace company SpaceX, which is owned by the multi-billionaire tech mogul, whose business portfolio also includes social media platform X - formerly Twitter - and electric vehicle company Tesla.
Airlines have become an increasingly important customer base for the Starlink service, which is being rolled out by around two dozen other carriers around the world, including United Airlines and Qatar Airways.
And getting Ryanair onboard, given it has more than 600 Boeing 737 aircrafts, would be a significant deal.
But that notion hit turbulence, when the Ryanair boss ruled out equipping the airline’s fleet with in-flight internet technology.
Mr O'Leary made the comments to Reuters on Wednesday of last week, after Lufthansa became the latest carrier to announce it had signed a deal to install Starlink on its aircraft.
He cited the impact of fuel costs from drag caused by the external antenna and the short length of its flights.
Responding to those remarks on X the following day, Mr Musk said the Ryanair Group CEO was "misinformed" and that the airline did not know how to measure the fuel impact of Starlink equipment.
"He is being misinformed. I doubt they can even measure the difference in fuel use accurately, especially for a one-hour flight, where the incremental drag is basically zero during the ascent phase due to high angle of attack. And compared to most other connectivity solutions, there would actually be gains in efficiency," he said.
He is being misinformed. I doubt they can even measure the difference in fuel use accurately, especially for a one hour flight, where the incremental drag is basically zero during the ascent phase due to high angle of attack.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 15, 2026
And compared to most other connectivity solutions,…
In a subsequent interview on Newstalk also on Thursday, the Ryanair boss doubled down on his position and hit back.
"What Elon Musk knows about flights and drag would be zero," he claimed.
"We have to put an aerial antenna on top of the aircraft. It would cost us about $200, $250 million (€169m-€212m) a year.
"In other words, about an extra dollar for every passenger we fly and the reality for us is we can't afford those costs. Passengers won't pay for internet usage. If it's free, they'll use it but they won't pay €1 each to use the internet. So, we're not putting it on board.
"And I frankly wouldn't pay any attention to anything that Elon Musk puts on that cesspit of his called X," he told Newstalk.
"I would pay no attention whatsoever to Elon Musk. He's an idiot, very wealthy, but he's still an idiot."
Not to be outdone, Mr Musk took to X again, escalating the row by branding the Ryanair CEO an "utter idiot".
"Fire him," he added.
Ryanair CEO is an utter idiot. Fire him.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2026
In a further post, he insisted that Mr O'Leary got the fuel impact calculation "wrong by a factor of ten and refuses to look either at physics-based calculations or measured fuel usage for 737s that fly Starlink".
"Fire this imbecile," he added.
And so began the tit-for-tat exchanges.
Ryanair's famously mischievous social media team then rowed into the public verbal brawl on Friday, mocking the tech mogul when X suffered an outage in the US, suggesting "perhaps you need Wi-Fi?".
perhaps you need Wi-Fi @elonmusk? https://t.co/eq82qcLqKv
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) January 16, 2026
Then, when one of Mr Musk’s followers suggested he should buy Ryanair, he responded, "good idea".
"Should I buy Ryan Air and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?" he asked.
The spat continued this week, with the insults continuing to fly over and back.
On Monday, Mr Musk asked Ryanair "how much would it cost to buy you?"
He even created a poll on his social media platform, asking his 232 million followers if he should buy the budget airline.
A total of 947,831 people voted, with 76.5% supporting his idea.
Buy Ryan Air and restore Ryan as their rightful ruler
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 19, 2026
He made a similar move in advance of his purchase of X, when it was still known as Twitter.
On Tuesday, Ryanair took to X again to say that Mr O’Leary would "address" or "undress" what he described as "Elon Musk’s Twitter tantrum" and "latest Twitsh*t" at a press conference in Dublin on Wednesday.
And of course, not to miss out on an opportunity, Ryanair used the spat to promote a January sale.
The airline suggested that "perhaps Elon Musk needs a break," as it announced "a Great Idiots seat sale especially Elon and any other idiots on X".
Cue a deepening of the online sparring that night with an equally colourful response from Mr Musk, in which he described Mr O'Leary as an "insufferable" accountant, among things, who he claimed had "no idea how airplanes even fly".
As we know by now, Michael O'Leary press conferences are never a dull affair, with the Ryanair CEO well known for not holding back.
Wednesday was no different.
The event had been scheduled before the row kicked off, to renew a call on what Mr O'Leary branded "a do-nothing Government" to remove the Dublin Airport passenger cap.
But, as expected, the focus was on the public spat, with national and international media out in force.
Mr O'Leary was taking it all in his stride, describing the spat with Mr Musk as "good fun and games" and thanking him for all the publicity it had generated.
The Ryanair boss said he didn't understand why Mr Musk had taken such "umbrage" to his rationale for not using the Starlink internet service on Ryanair flights, which he believed "was a reasonably measured response".
Mr O'Leary described the technology as "a terrific system that works very well," but he said using it on Ryanair planes would be "too costly".
And he believes that less than 10% of passengers would pay to access service.
"If Starlink want to pay for the fuel drag we would happily put it on board," he said.
Mr O'Leary said the war of words had generated welcomed publicity for the airline, with a boost in bookings in recent days.
"We want to thank him sincerely for the additional publicity," he added.
He said Mr Musk wasn't the first and won't be the last to call him an idiot and he stood by his own assertion that Mr Musk is also an idiot.
"If he thinks that we can fit satellite systems or antennae onto aircraft and not have a fuel drag, he's fundamentally wrong, and I think that's a stupid, idiotic statement. I'm a big idiot as well. One thing we can both agree on, we're both idiots," he said.
I asked Mr O'Leary if he was offended.
To which he replied: "No. I’m well used to being insulted. I've four teenage children. They do it on a daily basis."
Watch: O'Leary 'takes no insult' at Musk calling him an 'idiot'
The Ryanair CEO said he would welcome Mr Musk or indeed anyone as an investor, but he said there are rules on airline ownership, so he couldn't acquire a majority or controlling stake.
Mr Musk has an estimated fortune of around $780 billion (€661bn).
Ryanair holds a market capitalisation of around €30 billion (€25bn).
But crucially, there is no indication that Ryanair is for sale, and furthermore, strict European Union ownership restrictions mean Mr Musk, a South African-born US citizen, cannot buy or control the airline.
Aviation analyst and Head of Research at Goodbody stockbrokers Dudley Shanely said in terms of a full takeover of Ryanair, "under EU Regulation 1008/2008 the conditions for holding a European air operating certificate (AOC) require that an EU airline is effectively controlled by EU Member States and/or EU nationals".
"If Elon Musk was to try to buy Ryanair it would shift the effective control to outside of the EU at which point the airline would become ineligible to hold an EU AOC, which would result in the loss of rights to intra-EU routes and EU cabotage rights," he said.
He noted that Mr Musk could in theory buy a stake in Ryanair "although those shares would be restricted in terms of voting".
Mr Shanely said while Ryanair has removed the non-EU ownership restrictions it still maintains the right to "utilise all of the powers available under the Company's Articles of Association in the face of any risk to the airline licences held by the Company's subsidiaries pursuant to EU Regulation 1008/2008".
So essentially, while Mr Musk could buy shares in Ryanair, given those rules, he would be barred from owning a majority or controlling stake in an Irish or other European airline.
It should also be noted that there was little major movements in the airline's share price this week, which might suggest investors were not taking the idea of a takeover seriously.
To cap off the extraordinary week, on Thursday, a Ryanair representative along with a person dressed up as a Ryanair plane, landed at the X European headquarters in Dublin, to deliver a ticket for a free flight for Elon Musk.
freebies aren't our thing but just for you, @elonmusk 😘 pic.twitter.com/4njf14eDt5
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) January 22, 2026
And so it appears Mr Musk - the world’s richest man - may have met his match in Michael O'Leary - one of the world’s most outspoken airline bosses.
The tech mogul has so far not made any further comments on the matter since the Ryanair press conference on Wednesday, but time will tell if the spat has really fizzled out.
While Mr Musk might have the money, his latest purchase plan has been left very much up in the air.
