Ryanair calls up 'Comical Ali'

Ryanair launched a new phase in the air fares war yesterday by attacking its fellow no-frills carrier easyJet for being more like a flag-carrier than a low-cost airline.

The Dublin-based carrier is running a series of advertisements poking fun at easyJet and disputing its claim to offer the lowest fares available on the routes it operates. One advert depicts Saddam Hussein's former Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, who has been dubbed "Comical Ali", as easyJet's new head of information. Other advertisements describe easyJet's claim as "a load of bullocks" and one of the "four greatest lies told by man".

Ryanair's decision to attack easyJet rather than usual targets such as British Airways, Air France and Lufthansa marks a distinct shift in strategy, particularly as easyJet only competes with Ryanair on six of its 125 destinations.

Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's chief executive, said that criticising high-fare airlines such as BA had become "a bit like kicking a dead sheep". Ryanair's objective now was to "reposition" easyJet in the minds of air travellers. "We want to eliminate the idea that easyJet is somehow a low-cost airline. It isn't. Its average fares are 70 per cent higher than ours. There is only one low-fares airline in Europe and that is Ryanair."

An easyJet spokesman last night dismissed Mr O'Leary's claims and said it had always been careful not to claim that it offered the lowest fares available. "This demonstrates a deep-seated insecurity on Ryanair or perhaps it's just the case that Mr O'Leary is having difficulty selling his tickets. He gave away one million seats over Easter but half of them are still unsold."

He added flying with Ryanair was like a geography lesson. "They go to places you can't spell and have never heard of, and certainly don't bear any resemblance to the destination advertised. And by the time you have paid for a taxi to take you into the city centre it would probably have been cheaper to fly with British Airways, let alone easyJet!"

Mr O'Leary said the impact of economic uncertainty and the war in Iraq had affected yields because Ryanair had cut prices to stimulate traffic but he stuck with earlier guidance that the airline would make a €230m profit for the financial year to the end of March, 2003.