After billionaire Elon Musk floated the idea of purchasing Ryanair this week, the budget airline's bosses have issued a fiery response.
For those out of the loop, the tech boss has been at logger-heads with the carrier's owner,Michael O'Leary for over a week now.
Tensions first rose when the Ryanair frontman was asked during a radio interview whether he'd ever consider installing Starlink satellite internet technology, owned by Musk, on his fleet of planes.The move, if approved, would follow on from Lufthansa and British Airways choosing the same strategy.
Surprisingly, O'Leary - who happens to be one of Ireland's wealthiest businessmen - immediately rejected the notion, claiming a 'two per cent' fuel drag would occur if he added antennas to his 650 engines.
Advert
This, he continued, would rack up an extra $200-$250 million to its already hefty $5bn (£3.71bn) annual kerosene bill. O'Leary then advised listeners to 'pay no attention whatsoever' to Musk', dubbing him an 'idiot'.
"Musk knows even less about airline ownership rules than he does about aircraft aerodynamics," he continued.
Hitting back at the 64-year-old's claims on X (formerly Twitter) - which he also owns - Tesla boss Musk slammed O'Leary as 'misinformed', claiming he has 'no idea how aeroplanes even fly'.
"Should I buy Ryanair and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?" the South African billionaire went on to tease, following the question up with a poll which racked up a surprisingly amount of support.
He also called for O'Leary to be fired.
In response, the airline's social media team shared a pretty rib-tickling post on X that has since gone viral.
The message was shared on top of a blue background, and headlined: "Ryanair CEO to address/undress Elon Musk Twitter Tantrum at Dublin Press Conference."
The 'article' went on to read: "Ryanair CEO, Michael O'Leary, has called a press conference at 10:00 tomorrow (Wed, 21 Jan) in Dublin to address (undress??) Elon Musk's latest Twits**t."
Attributing a quote to O'Leary that read, 'Musk knows even less about airline ownership rules than he does about aircraft aerodynamics', the post continued: "Perhaps Elon 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!!!"
In a second tweet, the team also poked fun at an X outage that occurred across the US last week, joking: "Perhaps you need Wi-Fi @elonmusk?"
In what has since been described by spectators as 'Battle of the Billionaires', Musk's remarks spurred O'Leary to defend his business plan during said conference, during which he claimed he takes 'no insult' at Musk's remarks.The Irishman cunningly added that the SpaceX owner is 'free' to invest shares into Ryanair, but would never be able to own a majority, as per EU laws.
"Mr Musk is welcome to buy shares, but he can't take control," he joked.
O'Leary also jibed that the public feud has boosted Ryanair sales from two to three percent in the last five days.
'It is very good for our bookings," he continued. "We love these PR spats that drive bookings on Ryanair."
Rhianna Benson