Michael O'Leary has said Elon Musk can insult him "all day, every day" if it helps to boost Ryanair sales.

The airline chief has been engaged in a back-and-forth with the tech billionaire over whether Mr Musk's Starlink internet system could be used to provide wifi on Ryanair flights.

After Mr O'Leary said this was not feasible, Mr Musk called Mr O'Leary an "idiot" and "chimp" and mused on X whether he should buy the airline.

At a press conference in Dublin on Wednesday, Mr O'Leary said Mr Musk cannot own Ryanair as he is not an EU citizen, but he said he could invest in Ryanair and that would be a "significantly better investment" than X.

placeholder image — Ryanair Group CEO Michael O'Leary during a press conference at The Mayson Hotel, Dublin, after tech billionaire Elon Musk floated the idea of buying the budget airline to "restore Ryan as their rightful ruler" amid a feud over the use of WiFi on Ryanair flights

He then thanked Mr Musk for the "significant" boost in sales for Ryanair .

He said that the "PR spat" had driven a 2-3% increase in sales in the last five days.

Mr O'Leary said the company had been engaging with Mr Musk's Starlink satellite internet system for 12 months about introducing wifi on flights. He said while Starlink is a "terrific" system, installing it would mean putting aerials on aircrafts that would result in fuel drag at a cost of 100-200 million euro.

He also said that while Starlink insist 90% of passengers would pay for wifi, Ryanair estimate that less than 10% would pay for the cost - of two euro or three dollars (about £2).

"If Starlink wants to fit our aircrafts and pay for the fuel drag, we'd happily put them on board.

"But the only way we see Starlink working on board short-term flights is if you give it away for free, and like most things in life, if you give it away for free, passengers will use it."