Ryanair: EU acting bizarrely

Ryanair has accused the EU of acting bizarrely and making decisions on a political and not a commercial basis.

Ryanair has accused the EU of acting bizarrely and making decisions on a political and not a commercial basis.

In its annual report, the no-frills airline declared that it had offered a more comprehensive remedies package for Aer Lingus than the package offered by British Airways for British Midlands.

โ€œIt is bizarre that the EU can wave through BAโ€™s offer for British Midland in phase 1 with few remedies, yet months later reject Ryanairโ€™s offer for Aer Lingus, which was accompanied by a revolutionary remedies package delivering two upfront buyers to open competing bases in Dublin and Cork airports,โ€ the company said in a statement.

โ€œWe have no doubt that this was yet another politically motivated decision by Europeโ€™s competition authority, and it is inexplicable in the context of its stated policy of promoting European airline consolidation.โ€

Despite the EU objection to the takeover of Aer Lingus effectively ending any chance of a merger of the airlines ever being completed, Ryanair is subject to a second investigation by the UK Competition Commission into its Aer Lingus holding.

Ryanair is accusing the UK Competition Commission of wasting its time by going ahead with this investigation.

โ€œGiven that the UK Competition Commission has a legal duty of sincere co-operation with the EU, we believe they cannot make a contrary finding, and so this spurious and time-wasting inquiry into a six-and-a-half-year old minority stake between two Irish airlines, one of whom [Aer Lingus] has a tiny presence in the UK market, should now be abandoned in the light of the EU Commissionโ€™s finding that competition between Ryanair and Aer Lingus has intensified,โ€ the airline said in its annual report.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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