[credit to my brother Gerard for both the link and the headline]

Earlier today, the UK's Financial Times ran a story about maverick Ryanair's fight with the Belgian airport authorities.  The original version of the story has, sadly, been taken down and replaced with a sanitized version.

Here's how the version currently up on the FT's site opens:

Ryanair says it won't pay back state subsidies
By Kevin Done, Aerospace Correspondent

Ryanair is refusing to pay back alleged state subsidies arising from its operations at Belgium's Charleroi airport.

Michael O'Leary, Ryanair chief executive, said on Tuesday that the Belgian authorities had written to the airline demanding the repayment of around 3m[Euros].

Mr O'Leary said the company had written back making clear it did not intend to repay the money.

If you run this Google search, however, you'll see that the original, much more...um...colourful version is still sitting in Google's cache.  Here's the opening lines from the unsanitized version:

Ryanair refuses to repay 3m state aid
By Kevin Done, Aerospace Correspondent

Ryanair is refusing to pay back alleged state subsidies arising from the low-cost carrier's operations at Belgium's Charleroi airport.

Michael O'Leary, Ryanair chief executive, said the Belgian authorities had written to the airline demanding the repayment of about 3m[Euros].

"We have written back to say 'fuck off'," he said yesterday.

I can just see the look on the flack's face...

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 26, 2004.
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