How Ryanair is using Elon Musk’s Wi-Fi anger for marketing
Henry Innes, an Australian software company founder, worked with Qantas. After numerous travelers missed valuable contact time on long-haul flights with the national carrier, which does not have Wi-Fi on all its international flights, Innes began booking with other carriers.
“If you spend a lot of time offline and cannot respond, it becomes very difficult as a business person to operate on our national carrier. [messages on Microsoft] Teams,” Innes said.
International carriers like United, Qatar Airways and Hawaiian Airlines are forging ahead, setting the bar high for in-flight connectivity by adopting Elon Musk’s Starlink on their flights.
But there’s a cost Qantas passengers should be aware of before calling the airline to start working with the centrist.
As in other cases, Musk has proven to be ruthless with his critics while defending his technology. Recently, the billionaire got into a public fight with the CEO of Irish low-cost airline Ryanair.
Musk was enraged after Michael O’Leary, who is not himself an introvert, told Irish radio station Ryanair would not add Wi-Fi to the airline’s fleet of 650 planes because the friction created by the antennas would lead to higher fuel costs.
When Musk heard about this, he posted: “Ryanair CEO is a complete idiot. Fire him.” Musk asked his 232 million followers if he would buy the airline.
Given Musk’s run-ins with EU regulators over issues such as social media, it’s hard to imagine they would sign off on the acquisition of a company like the airline, which is in a heavily regulated industry.
Even so, the Ryanair CEO has expertly turned his recent insults and public outbursts into a promotional ticket sale for “idiots”.
“Musk knows far less about airline ownership rules than he does about aircraft aerodynamics,” O’Leary wrote in making the announcement.
These words must be painful for Musk, owner of SpaceX, the rocket company that revolutionized space cargo. (Musk was apparently angered enough by US president Joe Biden’s disdain for Tesla’s electric cars that he started supporting Donald Trump in 2024.)
Despite all his public quarrels, the South African-born billionaire’s technology, including Tesla and X, has made a huge impact on the world.
Even so, Musk seems increasingly unable to draw a line between actual technological disruption and the political chaos he is aiding on Earth.
It is even possible that this political chaos designed by Musk will one day reach Mars. starlink Terms and conditions It requires users to agree to reject Earth-bound human rule of the red planet, reflecting Musk’s personal struggle to colonize the planet on his own terms.
One wonders whether Starlink’s 280,000 terrestrial subscribers in Australia really understand what they’re signing up for. It’s a matter of curiosity whether any of us will be able to use Starlink on long-haul flights.
None of this is to say that the technology behind Starlink, which receives internet signals from 9,300 (and counting) small satellites in low Earth orbit, allowing for faster connections and fewer interruptions, isn’t valid or even inspiring.
For its Wi-Fi service, Qantas uses Viasat, which relies on signals from a small network of powerful satellites to ground stations and back. As the airline continues its anticipated fleet renewal, it is beginning to add Wi-Fi to international flights, with the service becoming a feature of new aircraft in the fleet.
Superfast internet connections in air travel will undoubtedly change the world. It is important to check from time to time which direction it will change.
To some extent, we are realizing Musk’s vision.
While airlines race to put faster, more plentiful Wi-Fi in cabins, we on the ground push to limit young people’s screen time and ask how social media is compatible with democracy and our mental health.
Limited Wi-Fi on planes isn’t just an inconvenience; It could also protect a quarter of our public life from an endless digital onslaught and what travel writer Richard Tams calls the “mirage of productivity at 35,000 feet.”
“The great productivity paradox of a long-haul flight is that because we fail to work, we actually rest long enough to think clearly again,” he wrote recently.
We are witnessing a profound paradox: Even as Musk’s Starlink connects us more tightly to the network, the human need for an occasional “digital detox” has never been more urgent.
Maybe one day, the ultimate luxury offering on planes won’t be unlimited Wi-Fi but completely free cabins. Musk wouldn’t be happy.
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