The chances of Ryanair acquiring majority control of Aer Lingus have suffered a fresh blow with the pilots' group known as Tailwinds spending approximately €18 million yesterday to buy 1.2 per cent of the equity.

Opponents of the €1.4 billion Ryanair bid now have more than 46 per cent of the shares, making it difficult for Ryanair to get over 50 per cent, unless the Employee Share Ownership Trust (Esot) decides to back the bid. Ryanair has 19.2 per cent.

It is understood that 6.2 million shares were bought at €2.90 yesterday in a transaction handled by Merrion Stockbrokers, which declined to comment last night. A stock exchange disclosure is expected today.

Tailwinds Nominees is a loose association of pilots interested in having a strong position in the airline. It was incorporated in late August, shortly before the Aer Lingus flotation took place.

It is understood that this group had started selling its shares following the flotation, but this was halted when the Ryanair bid was announced.

Sources suggest that the Tailwinds group could have almost 2 per cent of the airline's equity in total.

The Tailwinds purchase is separate from purchases last week by the pilot's pension group.

Despite the challenging arithmetic, Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary signalled yesterday that his company would consider buying more shares in Aer Lingus, even if its bid fails.

Speaking to reporters before addressing the Towards Sustainable Airport Development conference organised by the Fingal Development Board, Mr O'Leary said: "What people are not focusing on is what happens if the offer doesn't succeed? We'll be free to go in and buy more stock at significantly lower prices than €2.80.

"As I said on Friday, if the Esot votes against, I think this thing is unlikely to happen. If that happens, clearly the offer will lapse this time around and we will be free to go into the market to buy more stock at whatever price we want. We would be free to buy stock up to 29 per cent. I'm not saying we would. But we might do, if we thought there was value."

He said that, if the offer failed, the share price would come back below the Ryanair offer price. "It would be open to us to decide whether we want to buy more stock or not."

Asked whether his reputation would be damaged if the bid did not succeed, Mr O'Leary replied: "Sure I have no reputation to damage. Reputation, what reputation?"

Mr O'Leary's presentation concerned the second terminal at the airport. In a fierce denunciation of a Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) plan, Mr O'Leary said the terminal was in the "worst possible location" and would end up holding back the development of Irish aviation.

He said an independent competing terminal remained the ideal solution, adding that the Taoiseach, whom he described as the "Drumcondra ditherer", had promised to commission an independent terminal, but failed to keep his promise. He said if the DAA wanted to "piss away" millions of euro on an unnecessarily expensive terminal, passengers should not have to pay for it.

Describing a Metro to the airport as "complete waste of bloody money", he said an outer orbital road near the airport was a better idea.

It is understood that a decision on the terminal by Fingal County Council will be announced tomorrow.

After speaking to the conference, Mr O'Leary was asked whether an improved offer was on the way for Aer Lingus? He simply replied: "Our position is that €2.80 is a more than generous offer."

Mr O'Leary said he was not worried about yesterday's official rejection of Ryanair's offer by Aer Lingus. "We didn't expect anything more. All they did is issue a press release. I wouldn't pay too much attention to it."

He said there would be more "meat on the bones" when Aer Lingus came up with its defence document.