Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary says Elon Musk’s “tantrum” against him has backfired and boosted his airline’s bookings for the next three months.
“I welcome the accusation that I’m a chimp,” the budget airline boss said at a press conference Wednesday. “I think it’s somewhat unfair on the chimp community, but chimp-chump, as long as it increases Ryanair bookings through January, February and March, it’s all good fun and entertainment.”
Musk had publicly branded him a “r—ded t–t,” an “insufferable special needs chimp,” and an “idiot,” to which he responded by launching a flash “Idiot Sale” of 100,000 bookings for just €16.99 (about $20), which he says has now seen purchases up around 2 percent across the board.
“Later on, we’re going down to the X offices [in Dublin] to present Elon Musk with a free ticket,” O’Leary said Wednesday. “A free RyanAir ticket, to thank him for the wonderful boost in publicity which has seen our bookings rise significantly.”
The pair’s feud popped off last week after O’Leary said he would not follow other European airlines, like British Airways and Lufthansa, in equipping Ryanair’s fleet with Starlink because it would add extra costs.
Musk then taunted O’Leary by floating the idea that he might “buy Ryan Air and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge,” following up with an online poll on the matter. About three quarters of his followers responded, “F Yes.”
Tony Ryan, Ryanair’s founder, died in 2007.
O’Leary also took time out from his Wednesday presser to address the tech tycoon’s threats of a bid for the airline by pointing out that under EU law, non-European citizens are not permitted to own a majority in any publicly traded airline.
“He would have to join the back of a very, very, very long queue who already think I’m a r—ded t–t, including my four teenage children,” he said. “But if he wants to invest in Ryanair, we would think it’s a very good investment. Certainly a better investment than the financial returns he’s earning on X.”
Since Musk bought the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, in October 2022, X is estimated to have lost 80 percent of its value amid an explosion of hate speech, misinformation, and pornographic content.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Tesla CEO’s representatives for comment on this story.
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