Ryanair reiterated on Monday that in the event of a hard Brexit, it will place restrictions on the voting rights and share sales of non-EU shareholders for a period of time to ensure it remains an European Union-owned and controlled airline, even if Britain exits the EU without a deal.

"In the event of a hard Brexit, we may have a small majority of non-EU shareholders and I think we will be timing another share buyback at the same time as we would be imposing restrictions on all non-EU shareholders and facilitate some of those being able to dispose of their non-EU shares," O'Leary told an analyst call.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin, editing by Louise Heavens)