Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary says he will lodge an appeal with the European Court of Justice, if a European Commission investigation rules that the airline's deal with Belgium's Charleroi airport transgressed competition rules.
But at today's Ryanair annual general meeting, O'Leary said he did not expect a negative ruling, and did not expect the situation to damage Ryanair's business plans.
He told the airline's AGM he remained confident that the Commission would formulate a framework which would encourage publicly-owned airports to compete with private airports all over Europe on a level playing field, adding that no ruling could ever stop publicly-owned airports competing aggressively for Ryanair's business.
He said Ryanair was in talks to establish eight new potential hubs across Europe, with two locations in Italy, two in Germany, one in Spain, one in Scandinavia and one in the UK.
Mr O'Leary also said the airline was on track to meet profit expectations for the current financial year.
He said traffic numbers were strong, though yields were lower than expected. Mr O'Leary said yields would continue to be depressed this winter as Ryanair remained committed to driving down fares.
Ryanair plans to accelerate its purchase of Boeing 737 aircrafts, with delivery of 50 new planes over the next six months.
The Ryanair chief criticised what he called the slow pace of change in Ireland on the break-up of Aer Rianta and an independent terminal at Dublin Airport.
Ryanair's chairman David Bonderman told RTE that Ryanair's growth would be achieved organically, and he described the acquistion of rival Buzz as a once-off. He refused to comment on reports that, through his venture capital group Texas Pacific, he was interested in buying state airline Aer Lingus.
Ryanair shares were up 17 cent to €6.07 in Dublin this afternoon.
