Ryanair has launched a legal challenge against the French government over what it said was an unlawful labour decree recently adopted in the country.

The airline said that the decree, issued in November, attempted to force foreign airlines to apply French labour laws when basing aircraft in France and contravened European laws on the free movement of labour and services.

In a statement released yesterday, Ryanair said the decree is contrary to European laws on free movement of labour and services and the freedom of establishment and represented "a clear attempt to protect Air France from competition".

Ryanair said it had also filed a complaint with the European Commission calling on it to overturn the decree.

Ryanair's head of regulatory affairs and company secretary Jim Callaghan said the decree was "unlawful and anti-competitive", and was designed to discourage foreign airlines from establishing a base of operations in France.

The French government was not immediately available to comment on the move by Ryanair.

In December, low-cost British airline easyJet launched a similar appeal to the Conseil d'Etat, France's highest administrative court, against the decree. It applies to easyJet because the airline has operations at Orly airport, south of Paris.

According to French newspapers reports, Air France-subsidiary Cityjet could also be effected by the decree.

The decree defines the workplace as the place where employees work on a regular basis or where they return to when they complete a task.

Ryanair announced in May that it would open its sixteenth European base in the southern French city of Marseille, basing two aircraft there.