RYANAIR headed to court yesterday in an attempt to prevent operations chief Peter Bellew from joining arch-rival Easyjet until 2021.

Europe's biggest budget airline said in July that the former Malaysia Airlines boss would step down at the end of the year.

But after Easyjet announced Bellew's appointment as its new chief operations officer a week later, Ryanair launched legal proceedings in Ireland's High Court.

Ryanair argued that all its senior executives commit to non-compete clauses barring them from joining a competitor for 12 months after leaving the Irish airline.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary told reporters in September that the only issue was whether Bellew, who is currently working out his notice, can join Easyjet on 1 January 2020, or on the same date in 2021 — a full 18 months after Easyjet announced his appointment. An Easyjet spokeswoman declined to comment on the case. Bellew has not commented on the case since Ryanair initiated proceedings.

O'Leary has said the timing of Bellew's switch is sensitive because of the problems Ryanair is currently having with Boeing's grounded 737 Max jet.

Reuters

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