Ryanair boss says sorry to easyJet's Stelios

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary was today forced to make an unreserved High Court apology to easyJet's Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and pay him libel damages.

Mr O'Leary has to pay a total of £50,100 in libel damagaes as well as Sir Stelios's legal costs.

It is the latest twist in the high profile public spat between the two cut-price airlines.

Sir Stelios had sued over a Ryanair ad campaign which showed him with a Pinocchio-style nose and called him "easyJet's Mr Late Again".

The court heard the ads amounted to an allegation of lying and accused him of "hiding the truth" about easyJet's flight delays.

Sir Stelios sued in February and Mr O'Leary responded by challenging him to settle the dispute with a sumo contest or a race around Trafalgar Square. In further ads he went on to call the easyJet boss "chicken".

But today Chris Scott, representing Sir Stelios, told Mr Justice Eady that Ryanair now "accepted that the ads should not have been published".

He added: "Mr O'Leary and Ryanair have unreservedly apologised to Sir Stelios for the statements in the ads in so far as they relate to him personally and suggested he was lying.

"They have undertaken not to publish the ads again and have agreed to pay Sir Stelios damages and legal costs in settlement of his claim."

Sir Stelios was not in court but commented: "This was an unpleasant personal attack on me by a large public company, made worse by the way O'Leary responded.

"I am pleased that the law provides protection to individuals like me from unpleasant attacks on reputations from large corporations like Ryanair."