Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary met Willie Walsh, the head of British Airways's parent IAG, during the past three months to discuss the remedies package, he said. "I'm not sure of the 10 if they have all said they would be interested, but there is certainly enough interest to form the remedies package," he said. including Virgin, British Airways and Citijet, about taking over routes, McNamara said. Ryanair has spoken to around 10 airlines and charter operators. "Instead of having a Belfast base, and a Gatwick base, they should have a Brussels base" to serve non-Irish routes, he said of Aer Lingus.Īer Lingus, which only operates from Ireland and Northern Ireland, could then compete with Brussels Airlines out of Brussels National airport and possibly with easyJet in destinations like Amsterdam. "The way we can get across the line is by cutting a certain number of Aer Lingus routes, cutting a certain amount of Ryanair routes and then maybe refocus Aer Lingus," Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara told a news conference yesterday. Ryanair has said it will submit a remedies package that will include commitments by rival airlines to operate some of the 36 routes on which it and Aer Lingus have no competitors. Ryanair, which already owns 30 percent of Aer Lingus, has offered 1.30 euros per share for the remaining stock, which traded at 1.09 euros at 1409 GMT. Ryanair had an initial bid turned down by the European Commission in 2007 and dropped a second offer in 2009. The European Commission is to rule by January on Ryanair's 700 million-euro bid, seen as a long shot by analysts and investors who point to Aer Lingus's shares trading well below the bid price. DUBLIN: Ryanair yesterday held out fresh concessions to win approval to take over Aer Lingus, offering to move some of its rival's planes to continental Europe to operate non-Irish routes and allay concerns about a near monopoly in the domestic market.Įurope's biggest budget carrier said it would also scrap some of its own routes from Ireland to persuade anti-monopoly regulators to reverse course after rejecting an earlier merger.
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