Irish airline Ryanair has welcomed a United States District Court ruling against an anonymous Twitter user who posted a bomb threat last year.

The carrier obtained a number of subpoenas from the social media site to identify the individual.

The person responsible for posting the threat was identified as Brian Lake from Pennsylvania.

Using the handle @GunnexGod, he wrote: "Hello @Ryanair, you have 15 minutes before I commit the biggest terror attack the UK has ever seen on one of your planes. Be ready".

The account, which posted the threat in February 2016, has since been suspended.

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Ryanair filed extortion and defamation proceedings in the US earlier this year.

The US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania has awarded the airline US$284,148 (€248,889) in damages, including punitive damages.

Ryanair welcomed the ruling and reiterated that it will not allow any individual or group to threaten or impugn its industry leading safety record.

Ryanair's Robin Kiely said: "We welcome this US District Court ruling.

"The safety of our customers, people and aircraft is our number one priority and we will not allow anyone to impugn, threaten or undermine our 32-year unblemished safety record and will pursue any ‘anonymous’ social media offenders through the courts."