Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Michael O'Leary says talks with Virgin Atlantic (VS, London Heathrow) and Aer Lingus (EI, Dublin International) concerning possible regional feed agreements with each of the two carriers have ended.

According to Bloomberg, O'Leary told a press conference in London this week that Virgin had pulled out of negotiations while those with fellow Irish carrier Aer Lingus had failed after neither party could agree on responsibility for missed connections. Aer Lingus reportedly wanted joint responsibility, a request that Ryanair was unwilling to accept.

As such, O'Leary said negotiations with three other carriers - TAP Portugal (Lisbon), Norwegian (Oslo Gardermoen), and an undisclosed US airline - were currently ongoing. An agreement on providing feeder traffic for trans-Atlantic services is expected to be reached by next summer, O'Leary added.

The CEO also clarified that Ryanair was seeking only to provide feeder traffic into mainstream carrier's international hubs and was not looking at interlining, revenue sharing or even codesharing with them. Instead, the Irish LCC is offering mainline carriers the ability to package their longhaul flights with Ryanair's regional European services thus presenting a more cost-effective and therefore attractive product to consumers.

O'Leary has, in the past, prophesied that the continued dominance of LCCs such as Ryanair, easyJet, and Wizz Air will eventually force Europe's legacy carriers such as Air France-KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Lufthansa and Co. to withdraw from the intra-European market and focus on intercontinental operations instead.