Ryanair would be open to using Elon Musk’s Starlink wifi on its planes in the future, its finance chief has suggested, amid a feud between the boss of the Irish airline and the world’s richest person.
The airline would look at “whoever is the best, when the tech and price is right” for in-flight wifi, the Ryanair chief financial officer, Neil Sorahan, said.
Sorahan was speaking after an online spat between Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary and Musk, after O’Leary was asked whether he would follow Lufthansa and British Airways in installing Starlink satellite internet technology on his fleet of 650 aircraft.
The chief executive rejected the idea, saying that adding antennas to the jets would result in a “2% fuel drag”, adding an extra $200-250m to its $5bn (£3.66bn) annual kerosene bill.
Musk said the interpretation was “misinformed” in a post on his X platform, triggering a tit-for-tat exchange of insults, with each man calling the other an “idiot”.
Sorahan said the spat was “good fun” and had brought more people to the Ryanair website. O’Leary said last week that his quarrel with Musk had increased bookings by between 2% and 3%, after the company pushed a “big idiot sale” campaign poking fun at the Tesla chief executive, estimated to be worth $788bn by Forbes.
However, Sorahan added that in-flight wifi was still a long way away for Ryanair. “I have been looking at wifi for as long as I have been at Ryanair,” said the executive, who joined the airline in 2003. “There is still a fuel cost that we would have to absorb.”
There are concerns passengers may be less willing to pay for wifi on Ryanair’s short-haul flights, which typically only take between one and three hours.
The airline, which has grown to become the biggest in Europe, raised its forecasts for passenger numbers, profit growth and fares on Monday. It now expects to carry 216 million passengers by March 2027, and said average fares this year would rise by 7% to 8%, compared with previous guidance of 7%. Average fares rose 4% to €44 (£38) in its third quarter to the end of December.
Its profit after tax fell 22% to €115m in the third quarter, excluding a provision of €85m for a fine from the Italian competition authority, which the company said it was appealing against. However, it expects profit after tax between €2.13bn and €2.23bn for its full year.
The airline said Boeing deliveries were progressing well compared with a year ago when the aircraft supplier struggled to deliver jets on time. It said the final four Max 8 models would be delivered by the end of February, while the newer Max 10 would join the Ryanair fleet in spring 2027.
Shares in Ryanair, which are listed in Dublin and New York, dropped 1.7% in early European trading on Monday. They rose by more than 50% over the course of last year.
