Ryanair’s O’Leary apologises for ad depicting Stelios as Pinocchio

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary (pictured) has issued a rare apology to Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou for an advert which featured a picture of the Easyjet founder as Pinocchio.

Easyjet has received a full retraction and apology from Ryanair, both in writing and in court, for the four adverts in the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian which called on Stelios to stop hiding the truth about the airline’s flight delays and resume publishing weekly details of Easyjet's performance stats.

Stelios, who quit the Easyjet board in May in a row over the future direction of the company, had issued high court proceedings against Ryanair and O'Leary over the advert, claiming that the statements were libellous.

Ryanair said today that it accepted that Stelios (above) was not responsible for not publishing weekly details of Easyjet's performance: ‘While Ryanair will continue to campaign to encourage Easyjet to resume publishing weekly details of their on-time performance statistics, Ryanair and Michael O’Leary accept that Sir Stelios was not responsible for this non publication.’

In addition to paying £50,100 in damages and legal costs, Ryanair will pay for a full page apology to run in the Daily Telegraph and Guardian, which will also appear on Ryanair's website, Easyjet said in a statement.

‘I would like to dedicate this little victory to all those members of the travelling public who have suffered verbal abuse and hidden extras at the hands of O'Leary,’ Stelios said.

O’Leary said: 'Today’s settlement won’t detract from or end Ryanair’s campaign to expose Easyjet’s failure to publish its weekly on-time statistics for the last 52 weeks. Ryanair believes they have been hiding these details since May 2009, because they know they can’t compete with Ryanair’s punctuality, just the same way Easyjet can’t compete with our pricing either.’

The news is the second blow to Ryanair in its battle with the rival low cost airline in as many days. Ryanair was yesterday reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority for misleading customers with advertisements for cheap flights, following a complaint from Easyjet.