Ryanair has issued a tongue-in-cheek apology after a photo of a rude outline drawn in the snow by its ground crew circulated on Twitter. User Brendan Keary spotted the schoolboy graffito at Dublin Airport, says The Daily Telegraph.

Keary's photo of the scene - a Ryanair jet on the snowy tarmac surrounded by support vehicles and with a 30-foot phallus etched out beside it - was quickly re-tweeted by other users:

Ryanair ground crew are my new heroes! pic.twitter.com/dVxqW8KdzL — Matt Tilley (@itsmatttilley) February 3, 2015

One user, Lisa Domican, thought the work to be "better than Banksy" while another, John Boyle, claimed that "from a certain angle" it looked just like Ryanair's controversy-courting CEO, Michael O'Leary.

Ryanair responded with a press release saying: "While our ground crew excel at industry-leading 25-minute turnarounds, art isn't their forte, as they've clearly forgotten to draw wings on their snow airplane."

The Telegraph points out that Ryanair has made an effort to shake off its reputation for blithely causing offence with its advertising, customer service and avaricious pricing.

Last summer, the low-cost carrier started offering business class tickets for the first time.The company has even been making "great strides in recent months to win over families", says the Telegraph.