Airline launches 'Big Idiot seat sale' as it urges customers to get one 'before Elon Musk' does
Budget airline Ryanair has hit back at Elon Musk after the billionaire posted online that he wishes to buy the firm.
Taking to his own social media platform X, formerly Twitter, the tech mogul wrote: “Should I buy Ryan Air and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?”
In a later post, he said: “I really want to put a Ryan in charge of Ryan Air. It is your destiny.”
This came after Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary refused to follow suit with other airlines in installing Musk’s Starlink wifi onto Ryanair aircrafts.
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According to O’Leary, the costs of this would add up to £250 million each year, stating that he doesn’t think ‘our passengers are willing to pay’.
After Musk shot back and claimed O’Leary’s calculations were wrong, the airline CEO went on Irish radio to say: “I would pay no attention whatsoever to Elon Musk. He’s an idiot. Very wealthy, but he’s still an idiot.”
Now, the airline has taken it one step further as Ryanair unveiled its ‘big idiot seat sale’.
On the Ryanair website, it reads: "Only available for Elon Musk and any other idiots on X!! Book today before Musk gets one!”
Alongside this is a cartoon image that depicts O’Leary striking Musk on the head with an ‘I love Ryanair’ sign while the Tesla boss appears to be holding a toy car in his hands.
In the sale, 100,000 seats are available from €16.99 ($19.90) for travel between February and April 2026.
O’Leary held a news conference today (January 21) in Dublin to address the spat with Musk.
Speaking to the press, he said: “I thought that was a reasonably measured response to why we're not choosing Starlink, Elon Musk apparently took great umbrage and resorted to insulting me on X at the weekend calling me an idiot.
“I think yesterday, he also rounded on me and called me a r*****ed t**t. All I would say to Elon Musk is he would have to join the back of a very, very, very, very long queue of people who already think I’m a r*****ed t**t, including my four teenage children.
“But we do want to thank him, we’ve had over three or four million hits on this seat sale… which just goes to show that Europe leads the world in low airfares, there’s no airfares like this in North America.”
O’Leary went on to offer Musk a free ticket on Ryanair to thank him for the boost in sales.