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Musk and Ryanair’s O’Leary Trade Insults in Escalating Starlink Wi‑Fi Standoff

Ryanair says Starlink would add costly fuel burn, a claim SpaceX contests.

Overview

  • Ryanair reiterates it will not equip its 600+ Boeing 737s with Starlink, citing an estimated ~2% fuel penalty and $200–$250 million in annual costs on short‑haul routes.
  • Elon Musk called Michael O’Leary “an utter idiot,” urged that he be fired, and publicly floated the idea of buying Ryanair on X.
  • O’Leary dismissed Musk as “an idiot” in an Irish radio interview, and Ryanair’s official X account mocked Musk during a reported platform outage.
  • SpaceX challenges Ryanair’s figures, with Starlink engineering VP Michael Nicolls estimating about a 0.3% fuel‑burn increase on a 737‑800, and Musk suggesting the impact could be driven below 0.1%.
  • Prediction‑market traders on Polymarket assign roughly single‑digit odds to a Musk takeover, as Lufthansa announces rollout plans and SAS flies a Starlink‑equipped service.