French authorities have seized a Ryanair plane, forcing 149 passengers off the London-bound flight.
The low-cost airline had failed to repay €525,000 of illegal public aid to the DGAC civil aviation body which sent in a bailiff, under police protection, to seize the plane on the tarmac at Bordeaux airport.
The airline paid up within 24-hours and the €100 million aircraft has been returned to the airline's ownership.
"This measure was taken as a last resort by the French authorities after several reminders and attempts to recuperate the money had failed," the DGAC civil aviation body said.
In 2014, the European Commission ruled that subsidies Ryanair received from a regional authority a decade ago had to be repaid.
The airline has failed to pay back the money in the intervening four years and the Boeing 737 was seized at Bordeaux's Merignac airport in south-western France.
“By this action, the government reaffirms its intention to guarantee the conditions of fair competition between airlines and between airports," the DGAC commented.
“It was regrettable that the passengers on board the plane had to wait five hours before being able to take off from the Bordeaux-Merignac airport in another Ryanair aircraft,” the civil aviation body added.
The head of the French regional airport authority, Didier Villat, said that before paying up, Ryanair had tried to haggle and then shaved off some overdue interest.
"They owed us €525,585.05 and they only paid €524,907.80, which was the sum fixed on September 15th but which did not take account the accrued interest since that date,” said the disappointed official.
"Such stinginess, but we won't take the matter any further. The sum was negligible for Ryanair, a very wealthy company," said Villat, adding that "They wanted to make this a question of principle - but so did we," he added.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary has had a few headaches this year. In October, EU anti-trust authorities opened an investigation into whether Ryanair benefited from measures at a German airport that give the Irish airline an unfair advantage over competitors.
Then, ministers from five European governments warned Ryanair last week that it could face legal problems if it continues to ignore their national labour laws, following a series of strikes across Europe.
Ryanair pilots staged a 24-hour stoppage in September, for better pay and conditions, causing chaos for tens of thousands of passengers.
In July, strikes by cockpit and cabin crew disrupted 600 flights in Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, affecting an estimated 100,000 customers.
The issue for staff based outside Ireland remains the firm's use of Irish legislation in employment contracts.
The European strikes and disruption has triggered an earnings forecast cut but the airline still expects to make a post-tax profit of €1.10 - €1.20 billion this year.
Ryanair also is battling with Italian authorities which have ordered a suspension of the new carry-on bag charges and in the Netherlands, the company is in trouble with the law for shutting down its Eindhoven base this winter, despite a court decision preventing it from forcing pilots based there to transfer to other countries.
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