Airline founder wins damages after rivals accused him of being a liar

Sir Stelios brought proceedings in London's High Court over the advertisements which appeared in The Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and on Ryanair's website in January and February.

They concerned the flight on-time statistics of EasyJet plc, which had not been published on the airline's website for 37 weeks.

They featured a picture of Sir Stelios distorted so that his nose was elongated in the style of Pinocchio and referred to him as "EasyJet's – Mr Late Again".

Sir Stelios's solicitor, Chris Scott, told Mr Justice Eady that Ryanair and chief executive Michael O'Leary had made a complete offer to settle the claim and fully accepted that Sir Stelios did not lie about the matter.

They had unreservedly apologised and agreed to pay him damages and his legal costs.

Mr Scott said Sir Stelios asked the defendants to withdraw the advertisements and apologise but they suggested instead that Sir Stelios should resolve the dispute by a sumo wrestling contest or a race around Trafalgar Square.

The defendants now accepted the advertisements should not have been published referring to Sir Stelios, who was a non-executive director at the time.

Mr Scott said: "Both Michael O'Leary and Ryanair accept that Sir Stelios is not in any way responsible for EasyJet's management's continuing failure to publish weekly details of their on-time stats."

Sir Stelios' representatives said the sum offered was 50,100, which Sir Stelios would donate to his philanthropic foundation.