Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion believes Ryanair's €1.48 billion bid for the airline will fail. However, Ryanair said it was still confident it would succeed in taking over the company.
Speaking at a conference as workers lobbied TDs outside the Dáil this morning, Mr Mannion declared: "I believe, we will defeat the Ryanair bid."
Aer Lingus ceo Dermot Mannion
"There are very large regulatory hurdles to be overcome. I don't believe Ryanair can overcome them."
Mr Mannion also said he supported the surprise move by telecoms and broadcasting entrepreneur Denis O'Brien to acquire a 2.1 per cent stake in Aer Lingus.
Mr O'Brien spent €32 million in building up the stake along with pilots who have used part of their pension fund to purchase a 2.24 per cent stake.
Both parties said the holdings were aimed at blocking Ryanair's bid along with the Government who say the State's 28 per cent share holding will prevent any buyout.
Ryanair acquired around 19.2 per cent of Aer Lingus and announced it intention to increase its stake three weeks' ago.
Today, the company said it was confident it would be successful in taking over the former State airline.
The budget airline's deputy chief executive Michael Cawley claimed that more than one third of Ireland's former national flag carrier was still up for grabs.
"We're still looking at 54-55 per cent of the shares, including our own 19 per cent, in hands of people who have not declared their position," he said.
"We're still in a position to gain a majority share."
And Mr Cawley urged the Government and investors to act in the best interests of the company and accept the offer tabled earlier this month.
Meanwhile, around 50 Aer Lingus workers took their protest against Ryanair's proposed take-over to the company to the Dáil today.
Dermot Mannion
They distributed a leaflet saying say the national carrier should not have been privatised and that the Government was warned by the company could be open to a predatory takeover.
The Siptu leaflet was distributed
on
Monday at a protest at Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's Drumcondra clinic.
Sinn Féin supported the protest and TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh told the demonstration that the sell-off last month was a "grievous political error of monumental proportions that will have repercussions for decades".
"Our national airline was sold at a bargain basement price by a Government incapable of developing an all-island air transport strategy and unable to appreciate the importance to an island nation of a strategic asset like Aer Lingus."
Additional reporting PA