Photo: Ryanair The CEO of the low-cost airline Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, announced that he would hold a press conference in Dublin today, January 21, 2026, during which he will address Elon Musk's recent comments regarding the aviation industry and airline ownership laws.
The announced starting time for the press conference was 10:00 AM local time (10:00 AM GMT). O'Leary said he would respond directly to Musk's statements about the company, which Ryanair claims are not consistent with the regulatory reality in the industry.
Ryanair. Photo: Shutterstock
During the highly-anticipated press conference convened by O'Leary, the CEO addressed at length the state of global aviation but also the affair that is stirring up the aviation world.
"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 retarded twat, including my 4 teenage children.," O'Leary said.
"Elon Musk apparently took great umbrage and resorted to insulting me on X the weekend, calling me an idiot. I think yesterday he also rounded on me and called me a, I think, a retarded twat. 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 retarded twat, including my 4 teenage children. But we do want to thank him. We've had, I think, over 3 or four million hits on this seat sale our IT team launched yesterday, which is the big idiot seat sale. There's a hundred thousand seats available for sale at just 16 99, which just goes to show that Europe leads the world in low airfares.'"
On a more serious note, O'Leary said there's no way Musk's blind eye to the company will translate into an acquisition.
"We're a publicly owned company, he's free to do so at any time, but non-European citizens cannot own a majority of European airlines. But if he wants to invest in Ryanair, we would think it's a very good investment, certainly a significantly better investment than the financial returns he's earning on X. And we want to thank him sincerely for the additional publicity."
Ryanair announced the launch of a dedicated sales campaign that includes 100,000 seats at a starting price of €16.99 one-way only, from February to April 2026.
According to the company's announcement, the promotion is intended for all customers, with a public sting also directed at Musk himself.
The promotion page itself says that it is intended only for Elon Musk and the other "idiots" on the X network.
The company noted that the offer is time-limited and urged the public to order tickets as soon as possible.
The dispute stems from Michael O'Leary's reluctance to install Starlink satellite internet on the company's planes, claiming that the addition of antennas would damage the aircraft's aerodynamics and thus increase the fleet's fuel consumption and operating costs. In response, Musk, who owns Starlink, threatened to buy Ryanair, and both sides have called each other derogatory names, including "idiot."
Following the same debate, in a post on Ryanair's official page, O'Leary was quoted as saying that "Musk knows even less about airline ownership rules than he does about aircraft aerodynamics."