Michael O'Leary has hinted that Ryanair's audacious 1.48bn bid for Irish rival Aer Lingus might fail.
He said that the Employee Share Ownership Trust (Esot), which has a stake of 12.58% in Aer Lingus "looks likely to turn us down, in which case it looks unlikely our offer will succeed".
But he said his airline, which has a 19.2% holding in Aer Lingus, would "continue to be a significant minority shareholder and will exercise whatever influence we can to encourage Aer Lingus to reduce costs and offer lower fares which is, we believe, its best strategy for the future."
Mr O'Leary, ceo of Ryanair, launched his 2.80 a share offer as Aer Lingus launched its Initial Public Offering.
The bid is strongly opposed by the Irish government which as a 25% stake and by other shareholders, including Aer Lingus pilots which have a 4.4% holding.
The Aer Lingus board in its defence document described the Ryanair bid as "ill-conceived, contradictroy and anti-competitive."
It cited its plans for significant long haul growth as a major reason why the offer should be rejected.
These include extra flights to both New York and Boston.
French hotels strengthen recovery – MKG
French hotels have strengthened their recovery in the first nine months of 2006, according to MKG Consulting.
The Paris-based company said that revenue per available room (revPAR) rose by 5.4% in the first three quarters of the year.
It said the four-star properties did well with an increased occuancy of 3.7% to 69.1% and an increased revPar of 7.9% to 129.9.
MKG said: "The French luxury hotel industry was greatly affected in recent years by the bad economic situation and the slump in international travel.
"But 2006 clearly marks the end of the tunnel."
It said that all categories had improved their performance with revPAR for three-star properties rising by 3% and for budget hotels by 4.3% despite only small increases in occupancy rates.
* see BTE's recruitment site www.businesstraveljobs.com