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It didn’t take long for a fairly innocuous debate between two outspoken corporate leaders to escalate into an ugly brawl, name-calling and all.
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On Wednesday, Ryanair Holdings PLC chief executive Michael O’Leary said he wouldn’t consider installing SpaceX’sStarlink internet across the low-cost airline’s fleet because of fuel costs from the weight and drag of the antenna mounted on the roof of the cabin.
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His musings landed the Irish executive a quick retort from the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, who said on his X platform that O’Leary was “misinformed” and that Ryanair would lose passengers to other airlines that have signed up for the service.
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Whether budget-minded Ryanair passengers would even clamour for high-speed Internet on their short hops across Europe may be beside the point. But things went rapidly downhill from there, with O’Leary telling Irish radio station Newstalk on Thursday that Musk knows “zero” about flights and drag, and that Starlink would cost Ryanair as much as US$250 million a year to operate.
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“I would pay no attention whatsoever to Elon Musk,” O’Leary said. “He’s an idiot, very wealthy, but he’s still an idiot.”
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Musk then doubled down on Friday, calling O’Leary an “utter idiot” who should lose his job. A Ryanair spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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The brawl has pitted two of the most colourful corporate titans against each other — two men who have upended their respective industries with bold bets and audacious assaults on incumbents, often delivered with a supreme dose of self-confidence.
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O’Leary has been at the helm of Ryanair for more than 30 years, turning a sleepy local airline into Europe’s largest discount carrier, rewriting the rules of regional air travel along the way. Musk, for his part, has cornered a big part of the battery-powered car market and revolutionized the economics of space with his SpaceX launcher company.
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In 2028, O’Leary is set to receive a €100-million (US$116 million) bonus for hitting performance targets, though his net worth still pales in relation to that of Musk, who besides his space ventures is also chief executive of Tesla Inc.
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English (US)