Ryanair will eventually equip its planes with in-flight wifi, according to CEO Michael O’Leary—but only when installation and consumer costs drop to a sufficient level. The admission comes after a heated back-and-forth between O’Leary and Elon Musk over the budget airline’s refusal to install Starlink on its fleet of roughly 650 aircraft.
The feud was a profitable one for Ryanair. “We had a bumper week of free PR,” O’Leary told analysts today (Jan. 26), who noted that his tussle with Musk spurred roughly 1,500 news articles across nearly 60 nations—”many of whom had never heard of Ryanair before, but certainly have now.”
The spat began earlier this month, when O’Leary said Ryanair had no plans to install Starlink because it would require fitting aircraft with antennas that add 2 percent fuel drag. Starlink, a subsidiary of Musk’s SpaceX, operates a satellite internet constellation and has rapidly expanded into commercial airlines, striking deals with major player like British Airways and United Airlines.
Musk responded by calling O’Leary “misinformed,” sparking a flurry of barbs traded between the two CEOs. Ryanair then leaned into the moment, offering 100,000 discounted seats in a “Big ‘Idiot’ Seat Sale” aimed squarely at Musk.
Bookings on the Ireland-based airline rose by 2 percent to 3 percent during the feud, according to O’Leary, boosting an already strong period. Ryanair’s revenues increased 9 percent year-over-year in the last three months of 2025 to 3.2 billion euros ($3.8 billion), although profit fell 80 percent to 30 million euros ($36 million), in part due to an antitrust fine. It flew 47.5 billion passengers during the quarter, up 6 percent from a year earlier, with planes filled to 92 percent capacity.
When is in-flight wifi coming?
Fuel costs aren’t the only reason Ryanair has resisted in-flight wifi. Added fees for customers are another hurdle. The airline, known for ultra-low-cost flights across Europe, posted an average fare of 44 euros ($52) last quarter.
Starlink, in addition to other satellite internet operators like Amazon and Vodafone, predicts that between 50 percent and 60 percent of travelers are willing to pay for wifi, said O’Leary. But he believes the real figure is closer to 5 percent to 10 percent. “Therefore, it will simply add to costs without adding to revenues,” he said.
O’Leary is also unconcerned that budget rivals such as EasyJet and Wizz Air could chip away at Ryanair’s market share by embracing Starlink. “I have nothing but confidence that 99.999 percent of passengers, when they’re making a booking, will focus on what’s the cheapest fare,” said O’Leary. “Very few will focus on: I wonder if they have free wifi on board.”
Still, O’Leary said he would be happy to install in-flight wifi once technology drives down costs, which he put at around 200 million euros ($238 million) a year today when factoring in installation and fuel penalties. Future systems, he said, would allow antennas to be installed without protruding from the fuselage, eliminating drag and the need to drill holes in the aircraft.
“In five years’ time, as the technology continuously improves, I think most airlines will be fitting a wifi access on board short-haul aircraft,” said O’Leary. “We will certainly do so in a heartbeat.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
