EasyJet founder sues Ryanair's O'Leary over advert

EasyJet's founder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, said he has launched libel proceedings against rival Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary in a fresh spat between the European budget airlines. A spokesman for easyJet said the writ has been issued and will be served early next week. The action follows a Ryanair ad campaign that pictured the easyJet founder with a Pinocchio-style long nose. Stelios said full details of the claim will be published later this month and that he will seek "substantial damages" for being branded a liar. "With this advert he went too far and I am obliged to draw the line here. This is a libel action about my own reputation as an individual, not about comparing the two airlines," he said in a statement on Friday. On Thursday O'Leary challenged Stelios to a race around London's Trafalgar Square to settle their dispute and repeated the challenge in a statement issued on Friday in response to easyJet's annoucement of legal action. "Stelios obviously can't run, but he can't hide either!", O'Leary was quoted in the Ryanair statement as saying.