‘Especially For Elon’: Ryanair Trolls Musk With ‘Great Idiots’ Seat Sale After His Buyout Poll

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has escalated his very public feud with the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, by launching a promotional campaign dubbed the “Great Idiots seat sale especially for Musk”, offering “100,000 seats for just €16.99 one-way”. O’Leary also branded Musk an “idiot” who knows “even less about airline ownership rules than he does about aircraft aerodynamics”.

In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), Ryanair wrote that O’Leary has called a presser in Dublin “to address (undress??) Elon Musk's latest Twitshit”. The statement added, “Perhaps Musk needs a break?? Ryanair is launching a Great Idiots seat sale especially for Elon and any other idiots on ‘X’. 100,000 seats for just €16.99 one-way. Buy now before Musk gets one!!!”

.@elonmusk pic.twitter.com/c0rHEiJrIz

— Ryanair (@Ryanair) January 20, 2026

Minutes later, the airline confirmed that the sale had gone live, posting: “Don’t thank us, thank that big ‘IDIOT’ Elon Musk.”

Don’t thank us, thank that big “IDIOT” @elonmusk 👀

Sale now on👇https://t.co/0c6IvsKyyB pic.twitter.com/JAxRNzaYTa

— Ryanair (@Ryanair) January 20, 2026

Before Ryanair’s statement and sale announcement appeared on X, Elon Musk expressed, “I really want to put a Ryan in charge of Ryan Air. It is your destiny.” Just minutes later, he launched a poll asking whether he should “buy Ryan Air and restore Ryan as their rightful ruler”. Over 9 lakh people participated in the poll that got over 42.3 million views, with 76.5 per cent of people voting yes and 23.5 per cent voting no.

Buy Ryan Air and restore Ryan as their rightful ruler

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 19, 2026

The exchange followed another viral moment on X, when a user asked, “What is a propaganda you’re not falling for?” Ryanair responded, “Wi-Fi on planes.”

Responding to both posts, Musk asked, “How much would it cost to buy you?”

In the very next post, he reiterated, “I really want to put a Ryan in charge of Ryan Air. It is your destiny.”

How did it all start?

It all began last week after O’Leary was asked if Ryanair would follow Lufthansa and British Airways in installing Starlink satellite Internet across its fleet of roughly 640 aircraft. “What Elon Musk knows about flights and drag would be zero,” O'Leary, while speaking to Newstalk, an Irish radio station, said.

He added, “We’ve already had Boeing confirm we have to put an aerial antenna on top of the aircraft; now, that will cost us about a 2 per cent fuel drag. Our fuel bill for a year is five billion; it would cost us about $200, $250 million a year. In other words, about an extra dollar for every passenger we fly, and the reality for us is we can’t afford those costs.”

“I would pay no attention whatsoever to Elon Musk. He’s an idiot, very wealthy, but he’s still an idiot,” he continued.

So when X suffered an outage across the United States, Ryanair asked if Elon Musk needed Internet. “Perhaps you need Wi-Fi, Elon Musk?” Ryanair asked.

Elon Musk responded to this and asked, “Should I buy Ryan Air and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?” and the rest is history.

The billionaire, in a separate post, wrote, “Michael O’Leary is a retarded t--- who needs to be fired. Put him out to pasture! Please make sure he sees this message.”