It's unusual to have a spokesman for one company ringing the newspapers to get a story published about a competitor. But that was what happened on Monday night.

Late reporters got phone calls from a Ryanair spokesman anxious that the newspapers publish an account of a delay on a Paris-Dublin flight earlier that evening.

An Aer Lingus Airbus on its first official flight was delayed at Charles De Gaulle airport because of a light flashing in the cockpit indicating there were technical problems. Apparently there were none.

The airbus was one of 13 ordered by the national carrier. It was not on a scheduled flight, but somehow Ryanair heard of the delay and went to the trouble of contacting its spokesman, so he could alert the media.

The story made the front page of the Irish Independent, and two paragraphs in The Irish Times.

Ryanair one, Aer Lingus nil. We await the return match.