Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has apologised “unreservedly” for a series of adverts broadcast by his airline which depicted Easyjet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou as Pinocchio.

It was Sir Stelios who got the fairytale ending however after O’Leary admitted the Easyjet supremo was not personally responsible for publishing weekly performance updates, as suggested in their ads.

Accepting the apology, and £50k in damages for his philanthropic foundation, Sir Stelios dedicated the victory to those: “who have suffered verbal abuse at the hands of O’Leary.”

The offending ads, depicting Sir Stelios with an extended poorly photoshopped nose, were published in the Daily Telegraph and Guardian earlier in the year under the headline Easyjet’s  - Mr Late Again.”

Ryanair has promised never to run the ads again having already published full page apologies in both papers.

It follows a long running spat over advertisements between the two airlines with each referring the other to the Advertising Standards Authority on numerous occasions.