The boss of Europe’s biggest airline Michael O’Leary openly used an insult-rich online spat with billionaire Elon Musk to boost ticket sales and discuss all things politics at a press conference convened in Dublin on Wednesday morning.
The outspoken airline boss did not waste the opportunity to call for the weakening of the CO2 pricing rules that the EU imposes on intra-EU flights, or urge a more “belligerent foreign policy” to counter US president Donald Trump’s trade threats.
“If Trump threatens Europe with tariffs, Europe should respond in like measure“, said O’Leary, who is a major importer of American aircraft.
“I don’t think a trade war would last very long, given the amount of American businesses that are based here in Europe, given the amount that Europe imports from America and vice versa,” O’Leary said.
EU policy
Blasting EU policies, O’Leary said that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen should fix shortcomings in air traffic control, and environmental legislation that obliges only intra-EU flights to pay for their CO2 pollution under the Emissions Trading System (ETS).
“It is indefensible that we only tax our own citizens and exempt everybody else,” he said. The EU ETS should be aligned with the less ambitious – and expensive – international carbon offsetting system known as Corsia, O’Leary said.
Annoying Elon
His comments came after days of Ryanair exchanging insults online with the former Trump ally after O’Leary ruled out the installation Musk’s Starlink system to provide in-flight wi-fi on his aircraft.
The system would cost Ryanair some €200-250 million a year, O’Leary said, mentioning the fuel consumption increase due to additional drag.
Yet, O’Leary offered the tech billionaire a free plane ticket to thank him for the “wonderful boost in publicity”, while pointing out that non-Europeans are barred from holding a controlling stake EU airlines.
This was a riposte to Musk’s threat to buy Ryanair and replace its CEO.
The Irishman didn’t lose out on speaking his mind on social media regulation, either. He called policymakers in both the EU and the US to ban anonymity online – a sensitive issue for Musk, who owns the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
O’Leary also commented on the ongoing scandal over the feature allowing its AI tool Grok to ‘undress’ images of women and children for users of X, as he renamed the service.
“I don’t understand why governments don’t make it illegal. That’s nothing to do with freedom of speech,” he said.
*Anupriya Datta contributed reporting
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