Ryanair intends to sign its agreement to purchase Buzz from KLM this week regardless of whether the deal is approved by the British Office of Fair Trading (OFT), according to chief executive Mr Michael O'Leary.

The Irish-based low-cost airline has been in continuous contact with the OFT and is expecting the takeover of Buzz to be approved in the coming days.

"We are hoping to clear it this week. We are confident of a positive decision," he said yesterday.

The OFT can still refer the deal to the Merger and Monopolies Commission but Mr O'Leary is prepared to run that risk and will begin to fly on the Buzz routes from May 1st.

"We can fly Ryanair aircraft on these routes and can go ahead without OFT approval. It is inconceivable that Buzz and ourselves are going to cause competitive problems," he said.

As part of a radical restructuring of the airline, Ryanair has cut more than 400 of the 600 jobs and has forecast that it will generate a pre-tax profit of €10 million in 2003 and 2004 compared with a loss of €30 million in the year to the end of March 2003.

Ryanair yesterday launched a new route to Blackpool with three flights daily from Stansted in London and Dublin. Mr O'Leary estimated that it would bring 100,000 tourists to the seaside town.

It also announced a daily flight between Stansted and the central French city of Clermont-Ferrand.

Mr O'Leary said the airline would meet analyst estimates of pre-tax profits of more than €230 million for the year to the end of March and played down any impact of the war in Iraq. He said the airline was talking to up to 50 airports about possible new routes and said it would not be launching any new destinations from Dublin while Aer Rianta continues to run the airport.

He said that opening up new routes in eastern Europe was probably five to 10 years away.