RYANAIR boss Michael O'Leary breezed into Belfast for the second time inside a month, if anything even more confident, upbeat and combative than on his first visit.

He had arrived to announce a 100,000 £5 seat sale to mark five days to go before Europe's largest low fares airline began operations from George Best Belfast City Airport.

Claiming that the airline had already sold 100,000 seats since it first announced its new Belfast City operation, he said there had been a record level of advance bookings in response to the airline's decision to open four new routes from Belfast from the end of October.

"Ryanair is going to revolutionise air travel to and from Belfast by guaranteeing the lowest fares from either of the two Belfast airports.

"Over the next year 600,000 people will fly with Ryanair to and from Belfast City, generating a tourism spend of over £100m and sustaining 600 local jobs,"

From October 30, when Ryanair brought a brand new Boeing 737-800 aircraft to Belfast City, the airline says it will guarantee the lowest fares from any Belfast airport.

The Ryanair chief pledged: "If passengers find a lower fare with any other airline from any Belfast airport, we will pay double the difference."

Ryanair is now operating a four times daily service to London Stansted from Belfast City, a twice daily service to Liverpool and daily services to both East Midlands and Glasgow.

The airline goes head to head with low-cost rivals easyJet who operate from Belfast International to Stansted and Liverpool.

And the Ryanair boss is dismissive of the competition from Aer Lingus who will be operating from Belfast International in the coming weeks - he says he doesn't even regard the Irish airline as competition.

"We have the lowest fares, least cancellations and the best punctuality record so we are confident about our ability to make our targets and grow the market and add new routes from Belfast City Airport."

However, direct Ryanair air links to the Continent will not come until Belfast City extends its present runway.

At present, the airline would be restricted to 130 passengers on an aircraft with a near 200-seat capacity because of the heavier fuel load needed for the longer routes.

"That is not going to happen," said the Ryanair boss. "But as soon as the runway is extended we will be bring direct services to the heart of Europe. Fares of £10 to places like Brussels, Nice and Madrid will be extremely popular with local travellers.

"Hopefully with the runway extension complete we will be operating direct services to the Continent by the end of next year."