Mr O'Liary's response to the Guardian item was reported in yesterday's Guardian City diary. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/s...105112,00.html (scroll down to third item)

Apparently, LiarAir didn't really mean to claim that they had beaten BA in flights from the UK to the rest of Europe. What they really meant was flights within Europe, which of course is something different.

No doubt we can look forward to LiarAir's media release correcting their incorrect claim - but don't wait too long.

It's been a while, but a letter arrives from Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary. "I realise that figures, accuracy and your good self have long been strangers," he begins, proving that marriage hasn't dulled his edge. This regards Ryanair's claim that it has surpassed BA "as the largest carrier of flights from the UK to Europe". Based on November's figures Ryanair carried more passengers than BA, but only by counting flights from Dublin - implying that the Irish capital is in the UK, which it hasn't been since 1922.

Michael isn't having any of it: "We calculated our traffic figures for November in exactly the same way they are calculated by BA, namely all passengers carried within the UK/European markets." Ah - that's a subtly different claim: "within" rather than "to" Europe. It is not the same as Ryanair's claim earlier this week to be "the largest carrier from the UK". "I look forward to reading the correction in due course," writes Michael. Well, it's good to have a purpose in life.