Aer Lingus chief executive Mr Willie Walsh said yesterday that he did not believe it would be in British Airways' (BA) interest to buy a stake in the State airline.

BA is widely thought to be keen to invest in Aer Lingus if the company is privatised. The speculation is partly based on the fact that the Irish carrier controls a number of valuable slots in Heathrow and other airports.

However, during an interview on RTÉ Radio's This Week programme, Mr Walsh argued that BA could get airport slots for far less than the cost of buying the airline. He also said he did not see how the sale of Aer Lingus to BA would benefit the British carrier.

He also confirmed that the airline would be seeking 1,300 redundancies in its latest restructuring plan. Several weeks ago, The Irish Times reported that the airline was planning to seek 1,300 job cuts over a three-year period. Aer Lingus has one employee per 1,400 passengers, compared to Ryanair's one to 9,000.