Is it third time lucky for Ryanair?

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Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary told shareholders at last week's AGM that his company was "highly unlikely" to bid for Aer Lingus again.

Despite accumulating a 29.8 per cent stake in the formerly state-owned airline, Ryanair has twice failed to acquire Aer Lingus.

However, on closer examination, Michael O'Leary did leave himself a get-out-of-jail card, observing that Aer Lingus would need "a major reorganisation" and that if it came back to its shareholders for fresh capital, Ryanair would, surprise, surprise, be "happy to invest more money in Aer Lingus".

No doubt the timing was pure coincidence, but O'Leary's remarks came in the same week that he debated the merits of the Lisbon Treaty on RTE's Prime Time with Libertas leader Declan Ganley.

Ryanair has weighed in heavily on the 'Yes' side in advance of the second Lisbon Treaty referendum next Friday. The airline is spending €500,000 to promote a 'Yes' vote. This is despite the fact that the EU Commission blocked Ryanair's first bid for Aer Lingus in 2007 and O'Leary having used various colourful terms, of which "Stalinist" is about the only one that could be reproduced in a family newspaper, to describe the Commission in the past.

With Aer Lingus at sixes and sevens and O'Leary now being ultra-communitaire, will it be a case of third-time lucky for Ryanair?

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