Garry Cullen, Managing Director of Aer Arann, has said that the airline's development plans have been set back 12 months due to the current economic climate.
He made his comments as he appeared before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, which is considering air access to regions outside Dublin and fuel increase charges.
Mr Cullen also said he believed Ryanair would seek to dominate all regional airports and operate an effective monopoly. He said he believed Aer Arann could be 'squeezed' out of business by Ryanair, especially on the Cork-Dublin route.
But Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary later told the committee the airline had no interest in Aer Arann, and its competition was airlines such as BA, Lufthansa and Air France.
He also told the committee there was no future for airports at Donegal, Galway, Sligo, Waterford and that Knock was 'pretty flaky'. Mr O'Leary said Ireland is a country of 4 million people with 11 airports, when it needs only one.
Mr O'Leary also said that in the next five years all European airlines will have merged with the big five airlines. He said there would be no independent airlines such as Aer Lingus.
And he said it would be better for Aer Lingus to be owned by a man from Mullingar who guarantees no fuel surcharges, than some anonymous person in Frankfurt or Paris.
