The High Court was due to hear a petition tomorrow from Durham Tees Valley airport to wind up Eirjet. The charter company, based at Shannon airport, was founded by ex-Ryanair accountant Paul Schutz and a number of former directors from Irish airline Skynet, which went into examinership last year with debts of over 9m but recommenced trading after securing fresh investment.

Schutz described the dispute as "a hiccup" and said the winding-up petition for Eirjet had arisen because of "a debt with Durham Tees Valley Airport which got further than it should have". He refused to give an exact figure for the debt but said "we are certainly not talking six figure sums".

The debt was paid in full last week, he said, and the winding-up petition had subsequently been withdrawn by the airport operator.