Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said on 2 November 2026 that Elon Musk "generated about $30-40 million worth of free publicity for Ryanair" through their public feud, and that he has "no intention of making up with him"1. The figure is O'Leary's own estimate, given in a Bloomberg interview after Ryanair's first-half results2, and the report of the interview gives no method for the calculation1. The row began in January, when Ryanair ruled out fitting Musk's Starlink satellite wifi to its aircraft because of the fuel cost of antenna drag3.

What O'Leary said on 2 November

Ryanair reported first-half profit after tax of €2.15bn on 2 November, down 15% on a year earlier, as the price of its unhedged jet fuel doubled4. On the earnings call, O'Leary said the airline had held "extensive discussions" with Starlink, which he said was willing to cover the costs of installing wifi terminals on Ryanair's aircraft2. According to O'Leary, the talks broke down because Starlink believed 60% of Ryanair's passengers would pay for the service2. "I believe if it is free, some of our passengers will use it," he told investors. "If it has to be paid for, there is no revenue model whatsoever."2

In the Bloomberg interview after the call, O'Leary said: "I have no intention of making up with him. He thinks I'm an idiot, and I know he's an idiot."1 He said Ryanair's bookings "went up for two to three weeks" during the row and added: "If we can annoy him again, so much the better."1 Business Insider reported that Musk had not responded publicly on Monday and that SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment2.

Where does the $40 million figure come from?

The number comes from O'Leary himself. He told Bloomberg that Musk "generated about $30-40 million worth of free publicity for Ryanair"1. The report of the interview gives no method, such as a media value calculation, and the figure does not appear in Ryanair's results statement for the half year14.

O'Leary has put a value on the row before. On 26 January, the day of Ryanair's third-quarter results, he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that the row "generated about €50m in free publicity and additional bookings for Ryanair last week"5. He said there had been 1,500 news articles across 49 countries in that week, with a spike in visitors to the Ryanair website and in bookings5. Five days earlier he had told a press conference in Dublin that bookings were "up about 2% or 3% in the last five days"6. The January estimate covered publicity and extra bookings over one week; the November estimate covered free publicity only51.

How the feud started

On 14 January, O'Leary told Reuters that Ryanair would not install Starlink. He said an antenna on the fuselage "comes with a 2% fuel penalty because of the weight and drag" and added: "We don't think our passengers are willing to pay for WiFi for an average 1-hour flight."3 He estimated that the service would cost the airline up to $250 million a year7.

Musk replied on X that O'Leary was "misinformed"7. "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," he wrote8. O'Leary then told the Irish radio station Newstalk that Musk knew "zero" about aviation and drag, and called him an "idiot"7. On 16 January Musk posted: "Ryanair CEO is an utter idiot. Fire him." When a follower suggested that Musk should buy Ryanair himself and dismiss O'Leary, Musk replied: "Good idea."7

Ryanair turned the exchange into a promotion. Its "Big Idiot" seat sale offered 100,000 seats at €16.999. O'Leary said Musk was welcome to invest in Ryanair but could not take control, because EU rules restrict foreign ownership of European airlines6. Those rules are also at the centre of a separate case: see Ryanair fights a court challenge over EU ownership rules.

Why does a wifi antenna cost fuel?

O'Leary says the antennas mounted on top of the fuselage add both weight and drag103. At the Dublin press conference on 21 January he said Ryanair would have to put "not one but two aerials on top of the aircraft fuselage", which he said would cause a fuel penalty of between 1% and 2%9. He estimated that Ryanair's fuel bill alone would rise by €100m to €200m10.

Starlink disputes the size of that penalty. SpaceX's vice president of Starlink engineering said that "a 2% fuel impact might be true for legacy terminals, but Starlink's terminal is much lower profile and more efficient"8. "Our analysis shows that the fuel increase to a 737-800 (which burns 800 gallons/hour) with our current design is about 0.3%," he added8. The 2% figure comes from Ryanair and the 0.3% figure from SpaceX38. When the Scandinavian airline SAS chose Starlink, it said the aerodynamic drag of the system was lower than that of rival systems3.

Ryanair says the winglet retrofit it is completing on its Boeing 737NG fleet this winter lowers fuel burn by 1.5%4. The group has an unencumbered fleet of 620 Boeing 737 aircraft and expects its fuel bill for the 2028 financial year to rise by about €2bn at current forward prices4. "Tiny little improvements in fuel drag result in very significant fuel savings," O'Leary said in January. "But tiny impediments, like aerials hanging off aircraft, would add to cost."9 For the background on drag, cruise and fuel planning, see Getting to Grips with Aircraft Performance.

Who would pay for the wifi?

The second disagreement is about how many passengers would pay. In January O'Leary said: "The Starlink people believe that 90% of our passengers would happily pay for WiFi access. Our experience, sadly tells us we think less than 10% of our passengers would pay for this access."6 In November he put Starlink's assumption at 60%2. He said in January that "if Starlink wants to fit our aircraft and pay for the fuel drag, we'd happily put them on board"9, and on 26 January that Ryanair was "just not willing to fund an installation cost and fuel penalty of about €200m a year"5. In the same RTÉ interview he predicted that free wifi would come to low-fare airlines in the coming years5.

Starlink's service is usually offered free to passengers who sign up for an airline's loyalty programme, according to Business Insider2. O'Leary has also pointed to the short length of Ryanair's flights, which he puts at an average of about one hour3.

What other airlines are doing

Starlink has signed deals with nearly 50 carriers, according to Business Insider2, and SpaceX says it is contracted for roughly 12,000 aircraft11. Lufthansa announced its Starlink deal on 13 January, the day before Ryanair ruled the system out3. United Airlines and Qatar Airways are among the carriers rolling it out across their fleets7, and American Airlines has signed for its full mainline fleet11. See also American, KLM and SWISS expand Starlink wifi while Delta stays with other providers.

In the low-cost sector, easyJet announced on 26 October that it will fit Starlink to its A320, A320neo and A321neo aircraft from the first half of 2027, with the rollout expected to be complete by early 202811. O'Leary questioned whether easyJet would offer it for free: "It is not clear to us whether they are going to give it away for free."2

For Ryanair's fleet, bases and pilot routes, see the Ryanair airline profile and the Ryanair pilot selection guide. Ryanair is also changing how passengers check in bags: see Ryanair closes bag drop 60 minutes before departure.