Ryanair’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, is to challenge Elon Musk to an arm-wrestling match in a bid to settle the “battle of the billionaires”.
The two tycoons have been engaged in a war of words that began when the Ryanair CEO rejected the idea of fitting Starlink wifi to his fleet of Boeing 737s because of engineering complexity and aerodynamic drag.
They have been trading insults over the last few days and calling each other “idiots”. Mr Musk, owner of Tesla, X/Twitter and SpaceX, said he might buy Ryanair – prompting a post from Mr O’Leary on X asserting: “Musk knows even less about airline ownership rules than he does about aircraft aerodynamics.”
Now, though, the feud could come to a head with the two businessmen staging an arm-wrestling fight to the finish.
The idea of a public test of strength was proposed by The Independent during an interview with the Ryanair boss.
Mr O’Leary said: “I think that’s a brilliant idea. I think we should challenge Mr Musk to an arm-wrestling match.
“Let’s settle this like two idiots should: two old farts arm wrestling or having a boxing match or something with each other.
“It may be the best way of actually entertaining the world.”
In 1992, Herb Kelleher, co-founder of low-cost Southwest Airlines, challenged another aviation boss to a public arm-wrestling match in Dallas to settle a dispute over who could use the slogan “Just plane smart”.
Ryanair has launched a seat sale that is claimed to be “only available for Elon Musk and any other ‘idiots’ on X”.
The airline’s CEO said while anyone could buy the tickets, “we’ve deliberately pointed the seat sale at Elon Musk and idiots on X”.
He said: “If we can widen our passenger profile, encourage more people to get out of their bedrooms, posting anonymous rubbish on social media platforms and get out and travel and see more of Europe and interact with actually real human beings instead of bots on X, I think it would be a great service for humankind and certainly for Europe’s citizens.”
The Ryanair boss also called Mr Musk’s social media platform “a cesspit”, but said he would not take his airline account off the platform.
Mr O’Leary also vowed that he would not be buying a Tesla, saying: “My favourite vehicle is a Landini tractor”. He lives amid farmland outside Mullingar, 50 miles west of Dublin.
Read more: Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has been given a free Ryanair ticket
