Ryanair plane seized by French authorities in waiting line

A Ryanair plane was seized by the French authorities for financial reasons in the last problem encountered by the airline.

French civil aviation put the Boeing 737 on the ground Thursday at the airport of Bordeaux, before going to Stansted with 149 passengers.

He said the move was "a last resort".

The dispute arose out of French subsidies paid to Ryanair for flights departing from the Angoulême regional airport between 2008 and 2009, which the European Commission subsequently ruled illegal.

The French civil aviation authority has not specified the amount of its expenses, but the officials of the regional airport have specified that this sum was 525 000 €.

The authority stated that the plane "will remain immobilized until the sum is paid".

"It is unfortunate that the state had to take such measures, which resulted in the inevitable inconveniences for the 149 passengers on board the immobilized aircraft," said the French authority of the 39, civil aviation.

"These passengers were finally able to arrive at their destination later in the evening on another Ryanair plane, but with a delay of five hours."

This is the latest in a series of setbacks for Ryanair, which has recently faced a series of strikes of pilots and cabin crew in Europe.

Despite flight cancellations, Ryanair recorded an 11% increase in traffic in October, with 13.1 million passengers carried.

The production shutdowns contributed to a 7% fall in profits, to € 1.2bn (£ 1.06bn) for the six months ended September 30th.