Michael O'Leary has labelled the issue of Heathrow slots as "largely irrelevant" in the debate over the potential sale of Aer Lingus to International Airlines Group (IAG) - he added that the importance of the slots has "always been overrated in this debate."
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast - he said that Heathrow is a "dreadful place" and that customers are migrating to other hubs like Schiphol in Amsterdam, and airports in Gulf nations.
He was reacting to comments that Taoiseach, Enda Kenny made on RTE Radio One - claiming that the Government would need a "permanent cast-iron guarantee," regarding, "connectivity both for Cork, for Dublin, for Shannon, to a lesser extent Knock" - when considering the sale of Aer Lingus.
On the issue of these guarantees, Mr O'Leary pointed out that both the Irish Government and Ryanair are minority shareholders - saying: "The view of any minority shareholder won't necessarily prevail - the view of the majority will."
The leader of the low-cost airline also said that he would "personally" prefer to see an Irish group owning Aer Lingus.
Ryanair has a 30 percent stake in Aer Lingus - it has tried to takeover the company on three occasions - but these offers were rejected.
When asked if Ryanair would consider a fourth attempt to buy Aer Lingus, Mr O'Leary replied:
"It's open to us to consider a fourth bid - again the danger here is that because there is some process going on between IAG and the board of Aer Lingus - everyone gets into the realms of speculation - we won't."
He added that no formal bid has been tabled, and that the board of Ryanair has not been involved in any negotiations - and that if a bid is made Ryanair will consider it "in due course."
The chief executive was keen to but the sale of Aer Lingus in context, saying: "The country has many more things to discuss than the future of a small regional, peripheral airline."
"Ireland has two airlines, one carries 100 million passengers - and is growing strongly. The other carries less than 10 million passengers - and is going nowhere," he added.
He spoke to Newstalk as Ryanair reported a €49m third quarter profit compared to a €35m loss at the same point last year.
