Elon Musk tried to pick a fight with a major airline CEO — who says thanks for all the additional business you’re bringing in with your public tantrum, sucker.
“We love these PR spats that drive bookings on Ryanair,” the budget airline’s chief Michael O’Leary said at a news conference in Dublin on Wednesday, as quoted by CNN. “And we want to thank him sincerely for the additional publicity.”
The trash talking began last week when the Irish airline, the largest in Europe, said it wouldn’t install its fleet with Starlink technology, a satellite-based internet service operated by Musk’s company SpaceX. O’Leary claimed that the Starlink antennas would add drag to the planes and drive up fuel costs.
Musk could barely hide the sting he felt from the snub. He initially responded by calling O’Leary “misinformed” and added that he doubted Ryanair “can even measure the difference in fuel use accurately.”
Smelling controversy, O’Leary went on a interview with the Irish radio station Newstalk to taunt the world’s richest man.
“I would pay no attention whatsoever to Elon Musk,” O’Leary said. “He’s an idiot. Very wealthy, but he’s still an idiot. What Elon Musk knows about flights and drag would be zero.”
Musk, naturally, took the bait. O’Leary was no longer merely “misinformed,” but a “retarded twat who needs to be fired,” he seethed in response to the official Ryanair X account joking that wifi on planes was a scam.
Musk even threatened to buy out the airliner and posted a poll asking his fans whether he should “restore Ryan as their rightful ruler” once he does. Clearly, Grok was not consulted before putting up the poll: the “Ryan” Musk is presumably referring to is the Irish billionaire Tony Ryan, who died in 2007.
O’Leary didn’t back down. Tagging Musk’s account, the Ryanair account announced that it was launching a “Great Idiots seat sale” dedicated to “Elon and any other idiots on ‘X,'” and that O’Leary would be giving a press conference “to address (undress??)” Musk’s “latest Twitshit.” (Yes, they went there.)
Again, Musk fell for the trap.
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