RYANAIR YESTERDAY blocked two motions at Aer Lingus’s annual meeting in Dublin.

The rival airline and shareholder voted against motions that would have allowed Aer Lingus to issue new shares and to amend its articles of association.

The latter included a requirement that shareholders provide 30 days’ notice of motions for an extraordinary general meeting.

Both required a majority of 75 per cent and, with Ryanair owning more than 29 per cent of Aer Lingus’s shares, it comfortably defeated the resolutions.

Ryanair had indicated its intentions to Aer Lingus in advance of the agm, thereby ensuring the motions would not be carried.

In spite of this, Aer Lingus proceeded with a poll at yesterday’s meeting in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry. “We like to let people exercise their democratic rights,” Aer Lingus chairman Colm Barrington told reporters afterwards.

Ryanair’s legal and regulatory affairs director Juliusz Komorek spoke at the meeting. Ryanair deputy chief executive Howard Millar also attended.

Ryanair supported all other motions put to shareholders.

In a trading update, Mr Barrington said in April and May, Aer Lingus traded ahead of the same period in 2009 but it remains “cautious” on its full-year performance given the recession in Ireland.

Mr Barrington said the airline’s load factor in the two-month period had increased year-on-year in spite of Aer Lingus flights being affected by the volcanic ash crisis on 18 days in April and May.

Commenting on summer bookings, Mr Barrington added: “We are satisfied with the forward booking profile for our long-haul operations for the forthcoming months.”

He said there was a modest decrease in the short-haul booking profile for the summer but Aer Lingus continued to generate higher yields in its short-haul operation.

The Aer Lingus chairman said its liquidity position remains extremely robust and it could weather the economic storm.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Aer Lingus chief executive Christoph Mueller said its decision this week to cease operating transatlantic services from Shannon airport for an 11-week period from January 5th next, could have been “much worse”.

“The demand, particularly for winter, is very low,” he said. “We are optimistic that we can at least stabilise Shannon on the basis that we have announced.”

Aer Lingus lost about €85 million on long-haul last year but Mr Mueller said he was optimistic this could be turned around.

“For the full year [2010], we do not expect a profit on long haul because we inherited the winter schedule that was published in summer last year with all that capacity,” Mr Mueller said.

He said its franchise deal with Aer Arann was performing above expectations. Its joint venture with United Airlines on a route from Washington DC to Madrid has achieved “very high load factors”.