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Ryanair Says Feud Lifts Bookings as O’Leary Rejects Musk Takeover Idea

EU ownership rules make a takeover by the US-based billionaire highly unlikely.

Overview

  • At a Dublin press conference, Michael O’Leary said bookings rose roughly 2–3% in recent days and thanked Elon Musk for the publicity boost.
  • Ryanair launched a “Big ‘Idiot’ Seat Sale” with 100,000 discounted tickets starting at about £16.99 and said it would hand-deliver a free ticket to X’s Dublin office for Musk.
  • Musk’s X poll on whether he should buy Ryanair drew around 900,000 votes with a strong majority in favor.
  • O’Leary reiterated that EU rules require majority EU ownership of airlines, inviting Musk to buy shares but saying he cannot control the carrier.
  • The technical dispute remains unresolved, with Ryanair citing $200–250 million a year from 1–2% fuel drag for Starlink hardware, while SpaceX argues drag is closer to 0.2–0.3%.