Aer Lingus vs Ryanair - Photobomb

Aer Lingus vs Ryanair - Photobomb

Ryanair and fellow Irish airline Ryanair have been engaged in a social media spat after Aer Lingus ‘photobombed’ one of Ryanair ads, which led Aer Lingus to take to Twitter to gloat over its unintended inclusion.

The argument commenced on the evening of 15 January after Aer Lingus clevery spotted one its aircraft in the background of a Ryanair ad, albeit with the Aer Lingus branding only apparent to the eagle-eyed.

Aer Lingus tweeted: “Epic #photobomb… on Ryanair’s website! Even they know we’re Best for Business.” The tweet earned nearly 700 retweets and around 600 favorites.

But Ryanair – the budget airline fronted by fiery chief executive Michael O’Leary – which has recently promised to take a less combative approach to business, retorted: “Even @AerLingus is talking about @ Ryanair” and, referring to the smiling man in the ad, wrote: “FYI, he’s smiling cos he saved a fortune & avoided another late @ AerLingus arrival!” (which received a mere 83 retweets and 83 favorites).

The contretemps escalated after a Twitter user asked if the airlines hated one another. Aer Lingus graciously described the relationship as a “healthy rivalry” and asked its competitor to agree, but Ryanair was quick to set the record straight.

Far less graciously, it tweeted: “We stopped being rival in the 90s @ AerLingus… We’d have to treble our fares & lose 81m customers to be your rival” (440 retweets and 375 favorites).

Aer Lingus did not rise to Ryanair’s levels of invective, and responded: “Okay, nevermind.”