Budget Carrier Will Appeal The Decision

A hostile takeover of Irish airline Aer Lingus by rival Ryanair has been blocked by the European Union. In a statement, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said “The commission's decision protects more than 11 million Irish and European passengers who travel each year to and from Dublin, Cork, Knock and Shannon. For them, the acquisition of Aer Lingus by Ryanair would have most likely led to higher fares" and that Ryanair's did not offer a plan that would allow for sufficient competition in the marketplace.

“During the procedure, Ryanair had many opportunities to offer remedies and to improve them," Alumina said. "However, those proposals were simply inadequate to solve the very serious competition problems which this acquisition would have created on no less than 46 routes."

The Irish Examiner newspaper reports that Ryanair already owns 30 percent of Aer Lingus, and had said that it would transfer routes to Flybe and British Airways in an effort to make the deal palatable to the EU. Ryanair said that it has "strong grounds" to appeal the decision, which it said was "politically inspired."

The Irish government welcomed the decision. Aer Lingus CEO Christoph Mueller said Ryanair hopes to sidetrack an investigation of its stake in Aer Lingus by Britain's Competition Commission by filing the appeal.

FMI: http://europa.eu, www.competition-commission.org.uk