Ryanair to appeal ruling of Dutch court

Ryanair says it is appealing a recent ruling in a Dutch court in favour of local broadcaster KRO, which the airline sued for defamation following programmes featuring claims by pilots about the amount of fuel carried by the airline's aircraft.

The Irish airline sued KRO after it broadcast programmes, similar to the one produced by Channel 4's Dispatches , where former pilots said that they felt pressured into flying with less fuel than they would like.

Ryanair has always said the allegations are false.

Media coverage subsequent to the Channel 4 broadcast resulted in a series of settlements in Ryanair’s favour. Its action against Channel 4 continues.

However, in this case the Dutch court ruled against its defamation claim.

The airline said it had told its lawyers to immediately appeal “this bizarre decision” and said the relevant authorities had already dismissed the claims made by the Dutch broadcaster.

KRO broadcast three programmes on the issue. Ryanair began its action after the first, but the channel showed the other episodes.

* This article was amended on April 18th 2014