DUBLIN, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Ryanair on Thursday denied the recent claims that the company is interested in Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAS or Norwegian Air), the third largest low-cost carrier in Europe.

Local media RTE quoted a statement issued by Ryanair on Thursday as saying that "There is no truth to these claims. We have not made an approach to Norwegian (Air) and we have no interest."

"Our CEO has repeatedly said we believe NAS will go bust as oil rises to $80 a barrel and we don't catch falling knives," said the statement.

Earlier there were reports saying that Ryanair had approached NAS with a proposal to acquire a stake of around 20 percent in the latter and NAS' CEO Bjoern Kjos had confirmed the approach.

In a Monday statement outlining plans to consolidate itself as Europe's largest low-cost flight operator, Ryanair did not rule out the possibility of further acquisition of other airlines after it bought a 24.9 percent stake in an Austrian low-cost airline LaudaMotion in April 2017.

"We believe that by investing in these separate airlines, we can build a substantial and profitable group of EU airlines under the Ryanair Holdings banner over the next three years, when it's likely that further M&A (merger and acquisition) opportunities will arise," said Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary.