Despite the hate it receives, Ryanair has grown to be the largest airline in Europe and makes an awful lot of money. They’ve done this because they know who their customers are so well (and just as importantly, who they’re not) they know they will put up with the many (and there are so many) things they dislike in exchange for really cheap flights.
Often getting himself in to trouble whilst at the same time appealing to his customer base, Michael O’Leary (CEO and very public face of the company) is a master of PR and promoting his airline. With a sharp mind and even sharper tongue there’s not many that seem to get the better of him, as Elon Musk (owner of Starlink, X, Tesla, amongst others) is currently finding out.
Musk wanted Ryanair to carry their Starlink WiFi and offer it to customers, O’Leary did some quick sums and decided it was going to cost a fortune with relatively little (5-10%) uptake from passengers, so unsurprisingly he declined.
Which didn’t go down well.
A war of words later (think “You’re an idiot” / ”No, you’re an idiot”), and Ryanair are, as normal, capitalising on the media attention. Sales are apparently up, a flash offer is live on their website, a stunt for the media of delivering a free flight to X’s Dublin offices, and of course a press conference delivered on X.
— Know your audience
