Ryanair and its chief executive Michael O’Leary have apologised to the founder of rival budget airline EasyJet Plc for suggesting he was a liar and agreed to pay about €58,850.
Lawyers for Mr O'Leary are withdrawing the allegations against Stelios Haji-Ioannou (43), who prefers to be known by his first name, at a hearing at the High Court in London today, settling a lawsuit.
In a half-page advertisement in the Daily Telegraph today, Mr O'Leary and Ryanair apologised "unreservedly" for tagging a photograph of Stelios as "Easyjet's-Mr Late Again" in publicity carried in that newspaper.
"It is not very often that someone as arrogant and as powerful as O'Leary is forced to apologize to someone else in public and in writing," Stelios said in a statement today. "I took this legal action to protect my reputation. I am not a liar and that statement was libelous."
Ryanair has agreed to pay €58,850 plus legal costs to settle the lawsuit, Stelios said.
The money will be donated to charity, the statement said. Mr O'Leary and Ryanair said they accepted Stelios was not responsible for not publishing EasyJet's on-time statistics for the past year.
"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.
Bloomberg