the EU commission newly prohibits the takeover of Ryanair on Aer Lingus



To five years and means from the prohibition tax from the EU commission to the acquisition of the Irish flagship company Aer Lingus by the Ryanair compatriot ( on 27 June 2007), today the executive organ of the EU has newly blocked the project of fusion thrown again successively from Ryanair. Same to that of the 2007 conclusion draft today from the Commission on the impact that the takeover it would have on the market: according to Brussels, in fact, the concentration would damage the consumers creating a monopoly or a dominant position on 46 aerial routes that now are object of an intense competition by the two companies. The fusion - it has found moreover the Commission - would have the effect to reduce the possibilities of chosen by the consumers and could determine an increase of the prices of the flights on these routes.

"The decision of the Commission - the vice president of the EU commission, Joaquín Almunia has explained, responsible for competition - safeguards beyond 11 million Irish and European passengers who travel every year from and for Dublino, Cork, Knock and Shannon. For they, the acquisition of Aer Lingus by Ryanair would have lead to an increase of the rates. In the course of the investigation procedure - it has added Almunia - Ryanair has had many opportunities to propose remedies and improvements; however, simply, these proposals have been inadequate to resolve the very serious problems of competition that this acquisition would have created on not less than 46 routes".

The aerial carrier low-cost Ryanair has received with disappointment the decision of Brussels and has announced that it will introduce appeal to the Law court of the EU. "Unfortunately - it has commented in charge of the public relations of the Irish company, Robin Kiely - the EU commission has refuted its same precedence in order to prohibit the offer of Ryanair for Aer Lingus. The consisting package of remedies of Ryanair - it has emphasized - holds account in full load of all the worries raised from the EU is in its prohibition of the 2007 that in the communication of it debits of November 2012. In an age in which the airlines in Europe and elsewhere melt in order to form champions of competitiveness (last week testify it the fusion of American Airlines with US Airways and recent joint venture strategic of Emirates with Qantas), once again the Commission has put from a part the competition and the possibility of chosen in Europe delaying an absolutely necessary consolidation".

"This decision - it has still found the spokesman of Ryanair - leaves Aer Lingus its state of small and isolated airline and leaves the two Irish airlines at the mercy of the monopoly of the airport of Dublino, that it is of governmental property and that continues to increase the fleeting rates, to offer services of third order and that it assists to a decrease of the traffic. In last the five years, in the course of which Dublin Airport has doubled own fleeting rates, its traffic is diminished by 24 million to 18 million per year, while Aer Lingus has continued to contract the activity".

"Ryanair - it has accused Kiely - regrets of the fact that the EU commission has once again failed in applying own norms on the competition and the precedence in fair and impartial way. It minds us that this prohibition clearly is motivated by precise political interests rather than from worries for competition and considers of having valid reasons in order to introduce appeal and to overturn this veto of political nature. Therefore - it has concluded - Ryanair has charged own lawyers to prepare an appeal against this evidently unjust prohibition".

Emphasizing as it is the first time that the EU commission must forbid the same agreement for a second time, from part its Aer Lingus has received with satisfaction the pronounced second "not" from Brussels. An attended veto, that of the Commission - according to Aer Lingus - as - has explained the company - "by how much the first offer was blocked in the 2007 number of routes from and for Ireland on which Aer Lingus and Ryanair are in competition it is increased quickly". "From the beginning - the managing director of the company has declared, Christoph Mueller - the position of Aer Lingus has been that the offer of Ryanair would not have had to be introduced. The series of contained inadequate remedies in the offer advanced from Ryanair evidences alone the fact that Ryanair has made own offer without some reasonable convincement that could obtain the authorization".

Aer Lingus has specified moreover that it will continue to cooperate with the Commission on the Competition of the United Kingdom in the within of its investigation on the participation of Ryanair in Aer Lingus, that is pairs to 29.82% of the capital stock.