ANOTHER APPROVED EU AIRLINE MERGER EXPOSES COMMISSION BIAS

[White Cap]

Ryanair News--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

News Release
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

23.01.08
EASYJET CLEARED TO BUY GB AIRWAYS

ANOTHER APPROVED EU AIRLINE MERGER EXPOSES COMMISSION BIAS

Ryanair, Europe’s largest low fares airline (22nd Jan) again questioned the EU’s politically motivated prohibition of the Ryanair / Aer Lingus merger, following the latest approved European airline merger between Easyjet and GB Airways.

This Easyjet / GB Airways merger (which was cleared by the UK’s Office of Fair Trading last week) is the latest in a long sequence of approved European airline mergers (11 since 2002) and exposes the European Commission’s double standards in applying a unique and discriminatory set of rules to block Ryanair’s bid for Aer Lingus, (which combined represents less than 5% of EU air travel) while approving much larger mergers such as Air France / KLM and Lufthansa / Swiss.

APPROVED EU MERGERS
1990 AF / Air Inter / UTA (100%)
1993 BA / DanAir (100%)
1996 LH / SAS (Co-op ag.)
2002 SAS / Spanair ( 74%)
2002 LH / Austrian (Co-op ag.)
2003 BA / IB / GB Airways (Co-op ag.)
2004 AF / KLM (100%)
2005 LH / Swiss (100%)
2005 LH / Eurowings (100%)
2006 AB / DBA / LTU (Ger – BKA)
2007 Flybe / BA Connect (UK – OFT)
2007 EZ / GB Airways (UK – OFT)
2007 AB / Germania (Ger – BKA)
2007 AF / KLM – VLM (100%)
2008 ? AF / KLM – Alitalia (100%)

PROHIBITED EU MERGERS

2007 Ryanair / Aer Lingus

By prohibiting the Ryanair / Aer Lingus merger, the European Commission broke all airline merger precedents and ignored its own competition rules, in order to serve the narrow vested interests of the Irish Government. Since the prohibition, Aer Lingus has increased its fares and raised fuel surcharges, whereas the pro consumer terms of Ryanair’s bid guaranteed a fares reduction and the removal of Aer Lingus’ unfair fuel surcharges, saving EU passengers at least €100m p.a.


Speaking today, Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said;

“This latest approved European airline merger (Easyjet / GB Airways) makes the European Commission’s decision to block Ryanair’s bid for Aer Lingus untenable. The continuing wave of European airline consolidation clearly demonstrates that the European Commission is applying unfair and discriminatory rules to Ryanair, while encouraging all other European airlines to merge and consolidate. The prohibition of Ryanair’s bid for Aer Lingus, which guaranteed over €100m p.a. in passenger savings including the removal of Aer Lingus’ unjustified fuel surcharges was a biased, politically motivated, anti consumer decision.

“As always with the European Commission, there is one set of rules for the flag carriers and a discriminatory set of rules for Ryanair. We again call on the European Commission to end this politically corrupt bias towards Ryanair by applying to it the same competition and merger rules they apply to Europe’s flag carrier airlines.


“The spotlight on the European Commission’s bias will intensify further when it rubber stamps other mergers such as the ones presently contemplated between Air France/KLM and Alitalia and/or Lufthansa/Swiss and British Midlands”.