Elon Musk Mulls Buying Ryanair and Putting “Someone Named Ryan” in Charge [Roundup]

News and notes from around the interweb:

• Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary and Elon Musk are feuding over whether Starlink materially increases fuel costs. So the richest man in the world muses about buying Ryanair and putting a guy named Ryan in charge.

  Michael O'Leary owns something like 50 million shares in @Ryanair

  This could be the most genius exit strategy of all time.

  Goad the richest man in the world into buying your airline… pic.twitter.com/5hgNIo3XWO

  — Karl Brophy (@KarlBrophy) January 16, 2026

  BREAKING: Elon Musk considers buying airline Ryanair and “putting someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge” after the company taunts him over X being down. pic.twitter.com/mb0OMvXtV6

  — The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) January 16, 2026

• JetBlue’s JSX partnership ends February 28. JetBlue owns – or owned – a stake in JSX. JSX is private and doesn’t disclose transactions, and it wasn’t material for JetBlue, so I don’t know the current status of that investment.

  United and Qatar Airways have also been publicly listed as investors, and United in some sense became closer – JSX credits were part of the Chase card portfolio refresh. And, of course, JetBlue and United are getting closer. So I wasn’t predicting this! But JetBlue does seem to be shedding partners.

• Eek.

  A near tail strike on landing for this brand new American Airlines Airbus A321XLR, flight AA255 from JFK, captured on the 24/7 Airline Videos Live broadcast on January 15th, 2026. pic.twitter.com/gCS2DsibH8

  — AIRLINE VIDEOS (@airlinevideos) January 17, 2026

• Scott Kirby thinks United should buy the Flighty app.

  United CEO on @Flighty.

  Impressive clarity and customer focus throughout the interview. https://t.co/a5zih1sx2H pic.twitter.com/6gkqXhhD6L

  — Ryan Jones (@rjonesy) January 16, 2026

• Making good use of airline food vouchers during delays (WaPo)

• A claim that how efficiently you fill out a credit card application can contribute to approval/denial.

  if you copy-paste your SSN, address, or income, you are dead. normal people type this stuff out. churners and fraudsters use notepads.

  if you fill out a 3-page app in 45 seconds, you get flagged. bio-catch (big vendor for this) tracks “time on page.” real humans hesitate. they double-check the zip code. they scroll to read the disclosures (even if they don’t read them)

  mouse tracks: we track your mouse curve. if you move in straight lines from box to box, it looks like a script. humans move in curves and hover over random stuff.

  the “incognito” red flag: applying from a fresh incognito window or vpn makes you look like a fraudster, not a privacy advocate. they want to see a browser history (cookies) that shows you are a real person who shops at target, not a ghost.

  gyroscope data (mobile): if you apply on your phone and it’s perfectly flat on a table, you score higher risk. real people hold their phones, and hands shake slightly. perfectly flat = device farm.