Ryanair's spat with Elon Musk was a "public negotiation that turned into a huge PR gift", according to the airline's group CEO Michael O'Leary.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, the Ryanair boss again complimented Mr Musk's Starlink satellite internet system, and predicted free WiFi would be coming to low fares airlines in the coming years.
However he said there was still a need for the technology to improve, and he said Ryanair was "just not willing to fund an installation cost and fuel penalty of about €200m a year."
The row between Ryanair's boss and the world's richest man began after Mr O'Leary said he did not see the value in deploying SpaceX's Starlink on its fleet.
The Ryanair boss questioned the costs involved and said he did not think enough passengers would pay to make that worthwhile.
In response, Elon Musk said Ryanair's cost calculations were wrong, with the dispute quickly devolving into the two businessmen trading insults.
At a press conference last week, Mr O'Leary said he was surprised Mr Musk had taken umbridge with him, and complimented Starlink's technology.
However this morning he denied that he was trying to de-escalate the row.
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"I hope it escalates - it generated about €50m in free publicity and additional bookings for Ryanair last year, if I could escalate it and extend it for another week we'd keep going," he said. "I thought it was great."
Mr O'Leary said the spat posed no risk to the business - even with the potential for Mr Musk to become a vocal minority shareholder.
He also said it would not matter that rivals were deploying Starlink - as internet access was not the main driver of bookings.
"99% of my passengers when making a booking want to know what's the cheapest airfare - I would put our cheapest airfare up against anybody else with Starlink and we would win," he said.
As part of the war of words, Elon Musk had floated the idea of buying Ryanair.
However, strict EU rules on airline ownership, which require EU states or EU nationals to have at least 50% control of any European carriers, prevent the tech billionaire from buying the airline outright or acquiring a majority or controlling stake in Ryanair.
Michael O'Leary today repeated that he would welcome Elon Musk or indeed anyone as an investor.
"He's welcome to buy shares in the company. There'd be a much better investment than his investment in X."
Mr O'Leary said Elon Musk has had "a huge amount of free publicity for X and his opinions on X" and he said Ryanair has had "acres of free publicity".
"Last week alone, there were 1,500 news articles carried across 49 different countries around the world. We saw a spike in visitors to our website and a spike in bookings. So we're both winners," he added.
"The great thing about these kind of controversies is if it generates noise, it's good for Elon Musk and it's good for Ryanair," he said.
"And I hope we'll have some other opportunities to create more controversies as we go along, because anything that creates free publicity is good for our business," he added.
Mr O'Leary's comments came as Ryanair boosted its forecast for average fare growth after bookings for 2026 got off to a strong start and predicted annual after-tax profit would likely jump by a third.
The airline, Europe's largest by passenger numbers, said average fares would be 1 or 2 percentage points higher for the year to March 31 than the 7% annual growth it forecast in November.
Average fares in the third quarter rose by 4% to €44 from €43 the same time the previous year.
Profits dipped in its third quarter, from €145m to €115m - which came as costs rose and the airline stopped receiving compensation from Boeing for the delayed delivery of planes.
Despite this the airline is "cautiously guiding" pre-exceptional after-tax profit to land between €2.13 billion and €2.23 billion.
"It's important not to get distracted by quarterly numbers - overall this morning we are predicting full year profits somewhere between €2.1 and 2.2 billion after tax - so a strong year, overall for the year profits will be well up," he said.
That is far better than the €1.6 billion it booked last year and in line with a €2.22 billion forecast from an LSEG poll of analysts.
"Traffic is also rising faster than we expected - we expect to carry 208 million passengers this year," Michael O'Leary said.
Ryanair's quarter profit was further dented by an exceptional €85m charge related to a fine from the Italian competition authority in December.
Mr O'Leary said he was confident the full €256m fine would be overturned on appeal, although that could take a year or two.
He also said he did not have confidence in the Irish Government's ability to permanently remove the Dublin Airport passenger cap - which is currently suspended pending a ruling by the European Court of Justice.
"We have no faith in this Government settling this issue, the growth this year at the moment is taking place outside of Ireland because of the continuation of this cap," he said.
However he said he got some hope from a recent complaint from US airlines, which has led to the Trump administration becoming involved in the row.
"There's a real risk the Trump administration block Aer Lingus flights landing in New York in which case it'll be emergency legislation passed in 24 hours," he said. "Or else Micheál Martin will have to explain himself when he gets to the White House in six weeks' time."
Ryanair has been forced to cut capacity growth in recent years due to delays at Boeing, but relations with the US firm are now going "exceedingly well", chief financial officer Neil Sorahan told Reuters.
The last four 737 MAX 200 aircraft of Ryanair's current order are on schedule to be delivered on time by the end of February and the airline is "increasingly confident" that the first 15 of 150 new 737 MAX 10s will be delivered on time in spring 2027, he added.
Boeing has told Ryanair they expect certification of the MAX 10 between July and September next year, Mr Sorahan said.
Ryanair to take out US ads as part of efforts to get Dublin Airport passenger cap removed
Ryanair is planning to take out advertisements on Fox News in the US in the run up to St Patrick's Day as part of efforts to get the passenger cap at Dublin Airport removed.
Its group chief Executive Michael O'Leary said the purpose of the action is to highlight that American airlines are being "disadvantaged" by what he described as an illegal cap at Dublin Airport.
Mr O'Leary said the commercials would also be aimed at showing that "Ireland is in breach of the EU-US Open Skies Agreement" and to call on the Trump administration to "take action against Ireland if we do not pass or scrap this cap by the end of February".
Michael O’Leary said Ryanair is "not willing to wait on Micheál Martin's vacuous promises of action later this year."
He said that given that Ireland will have the EU Presidency for the second half of this year, "nothing will get done in this country."
"They'll be too busy having their photographs taken and having State dinners to actually get anything done," he stated.
"So, it needs to be done before he gets to the White House in March. If it's not done, we'll be running Fox ads through March, raising this issue with [President] Trump and calling on him to block Aer Lingus flights until Micheál Martin finally takes action," he added.
Asked if such a move could be damaging to Ireland's reputation, Mr O’Leary admitted it could "in the short term".
"But, if it's the only way we can force this Taoiseach with a 20-seat majority to actually pass some legislation, then it will be good for it in the long term," he stated.
Mr O'Leary said the currently suspended passenger is hindering the airline and "particularly the American airlines" from growing and expanding capacity at Dublin Airport.
"The Irish Government published their Programme for Government in January 2025, 13 months ago. They said they'd get rid of the cap as soon as possible, and 13 months later, nothing done," he added.
Ryanair shares were lower in Dublin trade today.
