Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has called Elon Musk’s X “a cesspit”, but said he would not take the Ryanair account off the platform amid an ongoing row with the tech billionaire.
It comes after Mr Musk floated the idea of buying the budget airline to “restore Ryan as their rightful ruler” in a feud with Mr O’Leary over the use of WiFi on Ryanair flights.
The airline chief said the company had been engaging with Mr Musk’s Starlink satellite internet system for 12 months about introducing WiFi on flights.
He said that while Starlink is a “terrific” system, installing it would mean putting aerials on aircrafts that would result in fuel drag at a cost of 100 to 200 million euro.
“Elon Musk apparently took great umbrage and resorted to insulting me on X at the weekend, calling me an idiot,” Mr O’Leary said at a press conference in Dublin on Wednesday.
But he also said Mr Musk’s insults of him this week have boosted Ryanair bookings “significantly”.
“It is very good for our bookings and you know, we love these PR spats that drive bookings on Ryanair,” he told reporters.
“I’m sure it does wonders for Elon Musk and his X, or whatever subscribers he has on X as well, to be fighting with somebody.
“But you know, as long as it doesn’t involve safety, and we’ve never compromised on safety, any of these spats are great for bookings and great for awareness all over Europe.
“They’re up about 2% or 3% in the last five days, which, given our volumes, is a very significant boost.”.
Regarding X (formerly Twitter), Mr O’Leary said: “I do believe social media, X in particular, is a cesspit.
“I am not a member, never subscribed, don’t participate in it. But I find my personal objection to social media is anonymity.”
Asked about the prospect of a social media ban for under 16s, Mr O’Leary also said that there was no point but argued anonymity should be banned by governments.
“I think the most recent controversy with Grok undressing children or undressing women is, frankly, offensive”, he said. I don’t understand why governments don’t make it illegal. Women and children, and the occasional man I presume as well, should be protected from not having your images nudified.
“There’s enough porn out there for those who want to watch porn.”
He added: “Am I happy for Ryanair to be on it? Yes, I am. We have to be out there, whether it’s on Facebook or Instagram or God help us, we’re on TikTok.
“We have one of the biggest corporate accounts on TikTok, which I think, personally, is the greatest amount of rubbish I’ve ever seen. Talking airplanes, Jesus, is this what the world is coming to?”