Ryanair Ltd., an Irish low-cost airline, on Thursday announced that it made a mistake in announcing that its board had agreed on the plans to expand to North America.

The mistaken announcement by the airlines doesn't end there as while making that apparently erroneous statement on Monday, Ryanair went quite far saying that it might sell its cheapest seats on those routes for £10.

Ryanair in a formal recantation said, "In the light of recent press coverage, the Board of Ryanair Holdings Plc wishes to clarify that it has not considered or approved any transatlantic project and does not intend to do so".

Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's frequently outspoken CEO said in a statement that the entire announcement made on Monday was a sheer miscommunication.

He further said that nobody was around at Ryanair on Tuesday to retract the company statement issued to the Financial Times because it was St Patrick's Day.

Furthermore he said he was travelling on Wednesday and Thursday and it was not until Thursday morning when he had a quarterly board meeting in Milan that the subject came up.

The wrong announcement by the airline was immediately picked up the European and later by the North American media.

Ryanair and its CEO have earlier made headlines in the past decade for over-the-top statements that often ended up being coming across as publicity stunts.

But still it is not completely clear how the company mistakenly announced that its board had approved a plan for a trans-Atlantic operation when it actually had not.

The Irish airlines have long talked about pushing into the US market, but it's not the first to spot the opportunity as Norwegian Air also launched a low-cost service in May.