Sarkozy, Bruni win damages over Ryanair ad

PARIS (Reuters) - A French court ordered budget airline Ryanair Tuesday to pay damages to President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new wife Carla Bruni for using their picture in an advertisement but the sum was less than Bruni had sought.

The court ordered Ryanair to pay symbolic damages of one euro to Sarkozy and 60,000 euros ($88,870) to his wife. Bruni, at one time one of the world's most highly paid fashion models, had been seeking damages of 500,000 euros.

Sarkozy and Bruni sued Ryanair over the advertisement for cut price tickets published in Le Parisien newspaper last week, featuring a photo of the smiling pair.

The advertisement showed a cartoon bubble above Bruni, the scion of an Italian industrial dynasty, reading: "With Ryanair, my whole family can come to my wedding."

The French president and the Italian-born model and singer were married in a small ceremony in the Elysee Palace at the weekend, setting the seal on a romance that has fascinated the world's press since it was revealed two months ago.

Ryanair had admitted the advertisement was facetious and offered to make a 5,000 euros donation to charity but its lawyers argued that as a high profile couple, Sarkozy and Bruni had to accept inconvenient attention.

The ruling comes a day after Ryanair warned that high oil prices and a weaker British economy could hurt its profits in the 2008/09 business year.

(Reporting by Thierry Leveque, writing by James Mackenzie; editing by Keith Weir)