But Ryanair "ready to invest more money" in rival
Michael O'Leary, ceo of Ryanair, has ruled out a third bid for rival Irish carrier Aer Lingus.
He told the low cost carrier's AGM in Dublin that it was "highly unlikely" that it would make another offer.
But Mr O'Leary did say Ryanair, which has a 29.82% stake in Aer Lingus, was prepared to invest more money in the loss making carrier.
Reuters reported Mr O'Leary as telling shareholders: "I do think Aer Lingus will need a major reorganisation... and they will come back to the existing shareholders which would be the government, the trade unions and Ryanair presumably to raise some more money.
"We'd be happy to invest more money in Aer Lingus."
He also said that he thought Ryanair was at least three to four years away from starting a low cost long haul airline.
Mr O'Leary, who has floated this idea in the past, blamed the lack of availability of affordable aircraft suitable for long haul.
"While the market or orders for short-haul aircraft has collapsed for both Boeing and Airbus the long-haul order book has held up," Reuters reported Mr O'Leary as saying.
Aer Lingus has rejected both the hostile bids Ryanair has made for it, the second one earlier this year.
Ryanair had offered €748m - €1.40 a share - but the bid was rejected by the Aer Lingus board as a "rip off".
Mr O'Leary said earlier this month that he still expected to succeed in taking over Aer Lingus.
He told a UK newspaper: "In another 18 months and with more redundancies, they'll have burned their way through the last of the cash they have and will need to be rescued."
Aer Lingus announced a €108m post-tax loss for 2008 and since reported a €93m operating loss for the first six months of 2009.
The airline has also announced capacity cuts of up to 25% including services from Dublin to San Francisco and Washington.
It denied reports this week that it planned to cut all its transatlantic services.
The airline is due to announce a new cost cutting programme in the next few weeks.
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