In recent times, we’ve seen a bunch of airlines announce plans to introduce Starlink Wi-Fi, which is a fantastic innovation for passengers, given that it’s high speed, and is offered on a complimentary basis. Along those lines, one airline has made it clear that it’s not interested in Starlink. This has caused an interesting online discussion, as Elon Musk and Starlink fans just can’t come to terms with Ryanair countering the industry trend.
In this post:
Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary isn’t interested in Starlink
In a recent interview, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary was asked about the prospect of the airline installing Starlink Wi-Fi. His answer was simple — “you need to put an antenna on the fuselage, and it comes with a 2% fuel penalty because of the weight and drag,” and “we don’t think our passengers are willing to pay for Wi-Fi for an average one-hour flight.”
In response to this, Michael Nicolls, VP of Starlink Engineering at SpaceX, fought back against this argument, claiming that “a 2% fuel impact might be true for legacy terminals, but Starlink’s terminal is much lower profile and more efficient,” and that “our analysis shows that the fuel increase to a 737-800 (which burns 800 gallons/hour) with our current design is about 0.3%.”
Elon Musk even chimed in, claiming that O’Leary is “being misinformed,” and that “I doubt they can even measure the difference in fuel use accurately, especially for a one hour flight, where the incremental drag is basically zero during the ascent phase due to the angle of attack.”
Interestingly, Musk’s AI Grok tool doesn’t contradict claims of the 2% fuel penalty (which isn’t to say it’s accurate, but…).
Ryanair is right, and people can’t come to terms with that
Say what you will about Ryanair and its passenger experience, but there’s simply no arguing that Ryanair is one of the most disciplined airlines in the world. It’s one of the most profitable airlines out there, and also one of the highest margin airlines.
The airline does this because it’s not distracted by shiny things, but instead, the airline is laser focused on keeping costs down as much as possible. Ryanair doesn’t need Starlink, at least not for the foreseeable future.
Musk obviously just doesn’t understand the airline industry, because he claims that “they will lose customers to airlines that do have Internet.”
Right, so if I need to fly from Leeds to Gdansk, I won’t fly Ryanair nonstop for $27, but instead, I’ll more than double my journey time and quadruple the cost so that I can connect on a legacy airline through a major hub?
Musk doesn’t understand why people fly Ryanair — literally no one chooses Ryanair because of the product, but instead, they choose it because of schedule and price. And that’s logical, because the “big three” global European carriers are so heavily focused on routing traffic through their global hubs.
The Elon Musk fanboys just can’t wrap their head around this, with one person claiming that “if Ryanair is running their margins so close that *Starlink* would not be cost effective I’d bail as an investor.” Au contraire. Ryanair has among the industry’s best margins precisely because it’s focused on cost, and not frills.
Some people are also trying to do math as to how much revenue Ryanair could generate if it had Starlink Wi-Fi, with ridiculously complicated formulas. This seems to overlook the fact that a condition of Starlink Wi-Fi for airlines is that they can’t charge individual consumers for the service (at least that’s my understanding).
Bottom line
Ryanair has no interest in installing Starlink Wi-Fi. While people can push back against Michael O’Leary’s claims about the 2% increase in fuel burn, it’s the second part of the statement that’s unarguably true — “we don’t think our passengers are willing to pay for Wi-Fi for an average one-hour flight.”
O’Leary is correct here, plain and simple. Ryanair’s formula is to compete on schedule and price, and not on product. That works, especially when you consider that Ryanair has no competition in a vast majority of its markets.
So as much as I love Starlink as a customer, Ryanair is one airline where it’s simply not necessary, at least for the foreseeable future. Ryanair is successful because of that discipline, and not in spite of it.
What do you make of Ryanair’s lack of interest in Starlink?
RYR runs plenty of 4 hour+ flights. Would a €1 across the board increase on all fares not cover all RYR's costs?
You can hate Elon as a person but there is just absolutely no contest in flight internet right now. Once people get a taste of the gate to gate WiFi with speed and low latency…. Ryanair will capitulate. Also if easyjet starts installing them…
So many airlines will have free WiFi soon that people WILL choose airlines with free WiFi. Because people are addicted to their phones. Period.
They'll both get there. One major EU lowcoster will do this and others will follow. At this point (not to mention a few years down the road), the cost of adding a terminal is pretty negligible, even for Ryanair. Musk will make the terminal even smaller. Ryanair will realize that it's become a must-have amenity, since others have it. The two will find and make sweet love, eventually.
I am weird, but for pleasure trips I love having a break from internet on the plane so I never pay for it nor have any interest. One time in my life I get to just be lost in my own thoughts.
For business I expense wifi, but I also don't fly budget/pleasure airlines for business.
One has to be very out of touch to even think that Ryanair will pay for customer comfort. If anything, O'Leary will turn the lack of wifi into a selling point. After all, who does not want to enjoy the flight without an idiot in a next seat having a facetime call on a speaker?
Internet in the air for flights under 6 hours is an element of comfort, such as is having a beverage or a snack.
Ryanair does not *offer* any element of comfort. They do *sell* some. Starlink cannot be sold as a trade up, so it's not part of their business model. The weight of a Starlink module is similar to that of a loaded airline trolley. And that weight penalty is there 100% of...
Internet in the air for flights under 6 hours is an element of comfort, such as is having a beverage or a snack.
Ryanair does not *offer* any element of comfort. They do *sell* some. Starlink cannot be sold as a trade up, so it's not part of their business model. The weight of a Starlink module is similar to that of a loaded airline trolley. And that weight penalty is there 100% of flights (trolleys can be loaded more or less depending on past sales statistics). So you pay 100% fuel to fly that module 100% of the time + the time and money to install it and you can't charge more the individual consumer not can you increase your ticket prices as they are already optimized.
Starlink wifi or any wifi just does not fit into their business model, it's just dilutive.
I love the thought of Ben enjoying himself playing around on Google flights to try to come up with the most obscure Ryanair route he could think of, before settleing on Leeds to Gdansk
But he made his point beautifully.
It also works for Dublin-Faro which is one of the carrier's busiest routes:
Ryanair is 30 EUR non-stop
Aer Lingus 134 EUR non-stop
TAP is 162 EUR with 1h40 more journey time due to a stop in LIS (would you even make that 55min connection ?)
Would you quadruple your airfare to get "free" wifi for 2h40 ? (It's the airborne time that counts not the block time)
I don't care which provider airlines use, but, it's 2026, so, please get free, reliable WiFi to all passengers on every flight. If you're not going to have IFE screens, at least do that.
1990, for the first time in my life I have to admit to having to agree with the Irish leprechaun. Although I am not hung up on inflight WiFi and would never grace an O’Leary-mobile with my patronage, it pains me to admit that the leprechaun is right in this case.
If I’m right then your assertion must be wrong, right two? …. :-)
The idea that this airline would provide anything free or even at a modest price is a non starter. After all this CEO claimed he wanted to have coin operated lavs. He's a bottom feeder and while Musk might have a super ego (like all the tech a holes I have encountered) at least he's into charging people for taking care of their human needs.
Sure, he/they are cheap. At the same time, it's opened up air travel to a lot of people that would otherwise not afford it. And they have some unique nonstops between lesser airports. I'm glad ULCCs are still around. For competition, for consumers, I wish we had more in the US as well, though, consolidation here is becoming more and more an issue.
Good call Ryan Air. I do not understand why so many airlines have jumped on the bandwagon of this product.
I am a fan of WiFi on planes fan.
If other companies offer comparable service, please choose them, get it going.
But 1990! Just how many Ryanair flights have you flown?
I think what matters to Musk most here is the claim of 2% fuel penalty. Airline companies can have all kinds of reasons not to install anything. However, if that impression of 2% fuel penalty is established it hurts Starlink. Especially the claim is quite vague and lacks evidence support. I think Musk's argument is quite reasonable and necessary to save the image of his product. His following comment on wifi attracts business is more or less advocating the product.
Did you not read the part where his own AI did not contradict the 2% claim?
Everyone "wants" internet. But Ben is right: Starlink forbids airlines charging customers for their service. Ryanair isn't interested in adding a cost they know they could resell, and being forbidden to resell it.
The irony of Musk claiming someone is “being misinformed" isn't lost here given the issues with X.
You're right through Ryanair is ultra low cost - not seen any evidence of passengers wanting internet on these flights.
Passengers want WiFi on all flights.
Yes, Elon is a major hypocrite.
Maybe Ryan Air is waiting for Jeff Bezos' alternative satellite network.
No fan of any of these techbroligarchs. Still, if Jeff can offer an alternative, please, do so. And, if other companies can, the more the better. Competition here is good.
I don't think RyanAir will add wifi with any network for likely a decade or so. At that point true high speed true global coverage airline wifi will be so ubiquitous and cheap they will have no choice.