Musk has suggested he could buy the budget airline and called O'Leary "insufferable" and "an idiot", after O'Leary rejected the idea of using Musk's Starlink technology to provide wifi on flights.

O'Leary said at the press conference that his team is going to X's office in Dublin to give Musk a free Ryanair ticket to thank him for the "wonderful boost" in publicity he's had.

"If he wants to call me an idiot, he wouldn't be the first, and he certainly won't be the last ... But if it helps to boost Ryanair sales, you could insult me all day, every day."

On the prospect of Musk buying the Irish airline, O'Leary said: "We're a publicly owned company. He's free to [buy shares] at any time, but non-European citizens cannot own a majority of European airlines."